Chosen
by nowyouseemenowyoudont
Summary: there's something about Kagome, she's a miko, but there are far too many demons attacking her and this time the ominous presence Miroku is sensing is real... so what does Sesshoumaru have to do with it? AU KagsXSess
1. Chapter 1: A Real Ominous Presence

Chapter 1: A _Real_ Ominous Presence 

The huge boomerang soared through the air and sliced through the three sturdy thick bodied tree trunks as easily as if they were dandelion stems and sailed gracefully back to its owner who caught it with a dignified ease that suggested years of experience using the Hiraikotsu.

She was wearing a black latex suit that she used to practise in as it provided ease of movement.

Her ebony hair was tossed behind a shoulder and turned to look at her best friend as she stood on the porch of the shrine house with her bow string pulled taught as she focussed on her target.

She released the arrow and let it fly into the centre of the target yet again. Her hair fanned out around her in a victory dance. She was not one to miss. She did not use her Miko energy though, that was besides the point she was merely practising her skills, not trying to purify anyone.

She smiled in satisfaction and tucked her long midnight wavy hair behind an ear before bumping fists with the Taijiya.

"Ne, Kagome-neechan do you think you've ever missed a target?" the younger brown haired boy on the porch steps sniggered as he stroked the cat in his lap

"Shut it Souta" she advised her blue eyes glinting dangerously

There was a slow and unexpected round of applause behind the two teenaged females and they turned to look at the intruder. His dark hair was pulled into a small ponytail at the nape of his neck and his violet eyes twinkled mischievously. He was dressed casually in a deep purple shirk and black jeans and radiated a lazy charm.

"Miroku-niichan!" both Kagome and Souta chorused as they ran to the newcomer practically tackling him to the ground as they hugged him within an inch of his life. He hugged them both back and winked at the dumbfounded Taijiya as she watched them in confusion. He smirked when she blushed as a result of his wink.

"Touch her I break your face" Kagome threatened low in his ear as she caught the direction his attention was focussed on. She knew her elder brother well and didn't want Sango to kill her brother for his decidedly lecherous ways.

He chuckled lowly in return and released his two younger siblings before reaching forward to take Sango's startled hand in his own.

"I am Miroku, Kagome and Souta's elder brother" he smiled as she inserted her smaller calloused hand into his larger one, he brought said hand to his lips and she blinked in shock as a second later he was lying face first in the ground with a menacing Souta and Kagome standing above him.

"You never learn" Souta rolled his eyes and slipped the katana back at his hip as he had just used the butt of it to brain his elder brother.

"I warned you" Kagome muttered darkly as she kicked his leg

"Aw come on neechan, it was just a little harmless welcome" Miroku protested as he stood and went to hide behind Sango.

She was totally confused about her friends reaction, or overreaction and then Miroku cleared everything up for her as his hand began to caress her pert bottom.

He ate dirt again as Sango discovered her ancestral Hiraikotsu could be used on more than just demons; apparently it worked on lechers too.

Miroku grinned into the dirt, sure his head hurt like hell from the blows both Sango and his brother Souta had delivered to it, but it was worth it for the feel of that amazing ass, he could still feel it in his palm.

"Hentai" the other three chorused as they watched his hand twitch

***

"What happened to you three?" Mrs Higurashi asked as her two youngest children and Sango slumped in unison into seats at the kitchen table.

"Miroku met Sango-chan" Kagome explained

Mrs Higurashi chuckled darkly "Ah, yes my black sheep" she smiled reassuringly at Sango "I do hope you don't take offense for his actions dear, he's been like that for a while"

"At least he didn't ask you to bear his child" Souta nodded at Sango reasonably

"Never say never otouto" said Miroku appearing in the back doorway to the kitchen and earning himself four dirty looks. He sniggered.

"Sango-chan is a guest in our house Miroku and I would appreciate it if you would treat her kindly" the twenty year old was scolded by his mother and he grinned sheepishly

"Gomen Okasan" he apologised before leaning back against the counter and surveying the kitchen in a musing fashion.

"So why have you decided to grace us with your presence?" Kagome asked as she untied her hair and ran her hands through it

"Yeah, aren't you supposed to be in college?" Souta asked propping his katana by the door and straddling his chair again

"I was" Miroku frowned "but then I had this strange feeling of foreboding, and I knew I had to come home"

"Huh?" Kagome raised a delicate brow and Souta snorted

"Didn't you use the same excuse to get into Ayumi's house that night, or should I say, get into her pants?" Souta asked

"Souta!" his mother smacked the fifteen year old around his head with a tea towel

"He's telling the truth though" Kagome said rolling her eyes

Miroku pretended to be wounded realised no one was buying it and settled for sheepish instead "Okay so maybe I did but this time I really mean it!" he exclaimed

"Tell it to someone who cares" Kagome muttered and Sango nodded in agreement

***

"Ne, Kagome-chan, is your brother... you know... always like that" Sango asked as they sat on the swings in the local park together that night

"You mean perverted and unable to control his hands?" Kagome prompted

Sango blushed and nodded

"No"

"Oh"

"Usually he's worse, he was on his best behaviour today because of Okasan" Kagome confided in the Taijiya

"Worse?" she yelped in shock

"Yeah, he was pretty mild today" Kagome commented as she swung off the swing and gestured for her friend to leave the park as it was getting dark.

"Mild?" she was incredulous, and rightly so as she had been groped at least ten times throughout the meal Mrs Higurashi had served them.

"Yep" Kagome made a popping sound on the 'P' of the word and walked backwards along the street so she could grin at her friend.

"Is it wise for you to walk backwards when you can't even walk straight normally?" Sango teased

"I'm laughing hard on the inside" Kagome rolled her eyes and Sango chuckled as they reached the Taijiya street and split.

"See you tomorrow" Sango pledged

"Yeah see you" Kagome saluted her friend and turned down the other street with a slight skip in her step.

She crossed the road into Sora Street and frowned as the air took on a chill and cursed her bad luck for not bringing a jacket. She shoved her hands into her pockets and shuddered as she realised that it wasn't just the cold air that was cooling her. She was aware of the presence of several Yokai up ahead and she prayed they were not aware of her.

It wasn't that she couldn't handle herself; rather it was more like she hated getting involved in altercations with Yokai as she more often than not came off with a bruise the size of Japan.

She continued walking along the street silently praying to Kami when she was met with the six Yokai she had sensed. Luck was not on her side she decided when she realised that not only were they panther demons, but they were also armed and pissed looking.

"Well, well, well" the panther leader crooned at her as he heaved himself up off the wall he had been leaning against "what do we have here?"

She pretended not to hear him and attempted to swerve around them before a clawed hand clamped down painfully around her upper arm with the claws biting into her skin as he threw her back against the wall and pinned her there with one clawed hand around her neck.

"Look let me go now and we can forget all of this ever happened" she pleaded and then frowned in confusion as the leader who had her pinned waved away the other advancing

He was sniffing her right arm where his claws had drawn blood not a moment before. His tongue darted out and licked away the drops to her horror and she cringed as his rough tongue hit her soft skin.

"Wh-what are you doing?" she wriggled in his grasp and he glanced up at her curiously

"The blood of the shikon no tama onna?" he asked in shock and the other panther's hissed in denial and shock.

They were confused and looking at each other for some kind of conformation. Kagome was also confused, but she didn't have time to worry about that right now. She kicked the Yokai who was holding her in the stomach and then brought her fist up and into his face tearing through the cartilage that was his nose.

She dropped gracefully to the floor on her haunches and put out a hand on the cold tarmac to steady herself as she looked up at the predators.

They had gone from being confused to abruptly being furious as they all launched themselves at her at once.

She ducked out of the way of her first assailant before bringing up her knee and smashing it into his gut and then bringing her elbow down onto the back of his head charged with a small amount of Miko energy that effectively knocked him out cold.

The boss man panther brought himself to his knees with his hand over his nose as he watched her dispatch two more of his pack with lithe ease that suggested training in this particular field.

"Take her down" he ordered the remaining two nasally "if we catch the shikon no tama onna we will be unstoppable!"

The two remaining panther glanced at each other and nodded before turning back to their prey who smirked slightly and held her hand out palm upwards and curled her fingers twice; inviting them forwards.

They came at her as one and she dropped and rolled to one side before kicking one in the backs of his legs reducing him to his knees, the other took a swipe at her head which she missed by inches and severed a part of her hair. The one on her knees took use of her distraction to take a swipe at her shoulder.

He landed the hit and his claws sliced through her fragile flesh earning a hiss of discomfort. She grabbed the offending wrist and twisted it behind the Yokai as she shot a bolt of purifying reiyouku at the other which knocked him unconscious and sent him flying into the alpha and they landed in a crumpled heap. The Yokai whose hand she was holding threw her from him harshly and she rolled across the gravel and winced as she landed hard on her injured shoulder. She stood shakily and barely managed to avoid his claws by an inch but was not as lucky as to avoid his foot as he kicked her in the gut effectively winding her and bringing her to her knees.

She gasped and panted as he grabbed her by her hair and yanked her face up so she was looking at him.

"Be a good Miko bitch now and I won't have to kill you" he taunted

"Bite me" was her gasped reply as she shocked him with the last vestiges of her reiyouku

He slapped her openhandedly across the face and then sliced across the flesh of her collar bone with his claws effectively throwing her over onto her back. Her head slammed into the pavement and she blinked rapidly as spots of colour danced in front of her eyes and she tried to remain conscious.

It didn't work very well and she watched with faltering consciousness as the Yokai brought back his bloodied claws and prepared to slit her throat.

Something green flashed in her vision but she was too far gone to open her heavily lidded eyes to see what it was. She was slightly surprised that she was feeling no pain and then, just before she let the black wall overcome her she heard a cold voice and a thump of skull cracking somewhere nearby.

"Pathetic"

A/N: We all know I don't own Inuyasha and so I can't pretend I do, but oh well. Anyway thanks for reading and review onegai.


	2. Chapter 2:Is it a bird? Is it a Plane

**Chapter two: Is it a bird? Is it a Plane? No it's Sesshoumaru...**

Sesshoumaru hadn't been looking for a fight. In fact he was out on a case. It was a simple, if a boring case, the wife suspects the husband of cheating on her and as such he, as a PI, had been hired to follow him and bring back the evidence of his infidelity. That was the annoying thing about those types of cases, the party accused of cheating always was actually cheating and it irked him that he had to follow lowlife cheating scumbags and take photos of them entering hotels and bug them while they had sex. He was an Inu Yokai for Christ's sake; listening to two people rutting wasn't something high on his list of things to do, his sensitive nose and ears were a curse in those circumstances. It was however somewhat amusing to watch the gleeful vengeful wives take out their anger on their unsuspecting spouses. The saying was true, hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.

But being a PI was what he did because to be honest without that job he would be bored out of his mind. Of course on top of investigating human cases he got a great number of demon cases and that was the sort of work he relished. They usually involved him having to use his strength and prowess as a Yokai and he enjoyed the challenge.

His father told him that he should stop 'gallivanting' and join the company, but he was not one for the corporate life, he was a young Yokai and loved the thrill of the chase, hence the job. Though his father kept up his facade of being annoyed at his career choice secretly he was happy that his son did not cave to anyone's wishes; it was the Taisho way.

Sesshoumaru was one to pride himself on power and as the son of an Inu and a Doku Yokai he had become the world's first Doku-Inu and he was powerful because of it. His mother was the cause of his Dokasso and his poison whip whereas his father's strength could be seen in his keen dog like senses and the customs he followed.

But the point was he wasn't looking for a fight.

He had been driving along after forcing himself to sit through the rather short sexual encounter of his latest cheating target and was driving home or maybe to the gym for a work out; he hadn't quite decided yet. But when he wound the window down to alleviate the stifling heat of the summer in the metal vehicle the scent of neko had permeated the air. No, wait it was more like panther demon and then he sensed the potent spike of reiyouku, it seemed he was in the neighbourhood of an impromptu battle between a holy person and a pack of panther demons.

Okay so his interest was officially piqued. He had no idea that a ningen possessing that much power still inhabited this time. He thought they had died out back in the feudal era, apparently not.

By the time he had threaded his way through the side streets the scent of female human blood was saturating the air, the scent was melancholy somehow, the blood that was not meant to be spilt and that was somehow familiar. He had no time to dwell on that fact though as he realised the smell was of a lot of blood and so he took to the rooftops in order to get there faster.

When he reached the scene of the fight he was mildly surprised to find all but one Panther demon eating dirt, apparently the young ningen onna he could see was strong, not that the Yokai were high level but there were six and she was only one.

Her blue eyes glared up at the panther with faltering consciousness as he realised that a combination of the blow she had sustained to her head and the blood she had lost through her shoulder wound was going to seal her fate.

The panther demon brought back his claws to sever the artery in her pale neck and something inside of Sesshoumaru snapped. Maybe it was seeing something as powerful as a Yokai slaying something as defenceless as a ningen. Maybe it was the divine injustice of something so pure being slain. But those reasons were not what flashed through the Inu Yokai's mind in that instant.

_**She is not allowed to die.**_

He had no idea why his beast had chosen to make an entrance but he decided to heed it's warning.

He jumped from the roof and sliced the demon that dared harm her into barely recognisable chunks of Yokai with his poison whip. He really hated neko of any kind and the stupid panther hadn't even had the brain power to sense his presence, sure the thrill of the kill was important but all predators should remember to preserve their own safety. Self preservation is supposed to be the most important instinct for a carnivorous Yokai, the only instinct that could be put before the thrill of the hunt.

"Pathetic" he intoned in a bored voice

He stepped over the chopped neko and crouched down besides the powerful ningen and tilted her head up to face him. Even with the beating she had just received she looked beautiful. It was not like him to admit to a ningen being beautiful but seeing as it was within the privacy of his own mind he would allow it.

Sesshoumaru smirked as the claw he could see in his peripheral vision attempted to slice his head off. He moved slightly to his right and the claw sliced through air and deposited the claw's unbalanced master on his hands and knees next to the Inu.

Sesshoumaru rolled his eyes; did the panther seriously think it could get one over on him? He turned and stood to loom over the fallen bloodied alpha.

"What is your argument with this girl?" Sesshoumaru asked his poison whip curling around the panther's neck with a sickening hissing noise as his flesh melted. The panther tried and failed to breathe due to his nose being bloodied and his oesophagus being squeezed.

"She is the Shikon no Tama Onna" he gasped out trying fruitlessly to scrape the whip away from his neck with his claws; the whip merely tightened its choke hold vindictively.

Sesshoumaru cocked his head to one side the gesture reminiscent of a confused puppy; he had heard that phrase somewhere before. Somewhere in the past, back when his mother was alive. He shrugged and retracted the whip.

"Leave now or die" he told the panther

He chose death.

Once Sesshoumaru had reduced the panther to acidic panther intestines with his Dokkaso he turned to survey the other four unconscious but still fully functioning panther demons. He realised that if he left them alive with their alpha dead revenge would be taken against the girl. He sighed and made quick work of them with his whip; it went against his aura to slay those who could not defend themselves but these pathetic creatures who had attempted to prey on the onna were exempt from this rule. Or at least that was what he decided.

He frowned down at the athame that the alpha had held concealed in his robes. He bent to pick it up. He was below stealing from corpses but this athame was different. It was intricate silver with an inscription in the hilt and a stone set in it that shimmered through the spectrum of colours. This wasn't what captivated his attention though, what caught his interest was the fact that the athame had a demonic aura of its own. In fact the aura of the athame far surpassed the panther that had been in possession of it. He lifted the athame and discovered it smelled only slightly of neko, like the neko had only just picked it up. The true scent that clung desperately to the blade like a second skin was the scent of Doku Yokai.

Sesshoumaru's eyes widened in shock as he recognised the scent. It was the scent of his uncle on his mother's side, he had only met the Yokai once when he was young before his mother had been slain and so it had taken him a second to recognise the scent.

He shivered as he remembered that particular uncle; he was a vindictive bastard incapable of niceties or being cordial. He remembered how the man stunk of human female blood and sex; it had been repulsive to him as a pup and was just as repulsive to him as an adult.

So now he was confused and the emotion did not sit well with him, he hated being confused. It was most unlike him. Why did a random neko have the athame that had belonged to his uncle? And why did his uncle posses an athame that exuded an aura of its own?

He decided these questions should be answered later; up until that point he was lucky no one had spotted him but now two ningen females were rounding the corner.

"Kuso" he cursed under his breath as they both screamed and ran. He knew it was only a matter of time before the police appeared and he had a low tolerance for law enforcement.

He bent and scooped the onna up and cradled her into his chest making sure he supported her neck like she was a baby. He stood for a moment as he winced at the scent of her blood that filled the air, the onna was lucky he had no penchant for humans as the scent of her blood was far too appealing. He growled as he realised for the first time exactly how much blood there really was and realised he was going to need to treat her wounds soon.

He took to the rooftops for the second time and was depositing her within his car in the next minute. Growling under his breath at his current predicament he accelerated away from the scene before someone saw him. It was never good when he was seen at a crime scene, after all how many demons could there be with magenta strips, a crescent moon on their forehead, long silver hair and gold eyes? Not many. It seemed he was always having to talk himself out of being arrested.

As he drove he began to wonder exactly where he should take her and then the fact that her blood loss was suddenly bordering on dangerous he decided to take her to his apartment.

He could have taken her to the hospital and washed his hands of the tempting onna, but he had a feeling there was more to this than a simple demon attack. The panther had called her the 'Shikon no Tama onna' and although he had heard the phrase he was having memory issues.

One might presume that getting an unconscious teenage girl through the lobby of a manned apartment complex in one of the better areas of town would be hard. But the ningen who worked there had learnt long ago not to look at Sesshoumaru or question him in any way. So he proceeded to his apartment unscathed.

Depositing the onna on the sofa he went over to the freezer to retrieve an ice pack for the lump that was rapidly forming on her head. He frowned and wondered what her reaction would be if she woke up and then decided in true Sesshoumaru fashion that he didn't care.

He sliced through the top half of her shirt and bra with his claws to attend to her shoulder. He surveyed the wound with a bizarre curiosity. If he had sustained such an injury it would have healed immediately but to this human child it was a serious injury. He sniffed the wound and deduced that although it was deep there was no poison in the wound.

His nose wrinkled in distaste as he realised what he was going to have to do. He wasn't one for interacting well with ningen and this ningen would more than likely try to purify him when she awoke.

He exposed more of her shoulder and calmly licked along each of the incisions sealing them back together with his saliva. He was expecting revulsion but the taste of her blood made his eyes roll back into his head. The taste was like nothing he had ever experienced and he didn't even enjoy human blood. In this day and age in order for a Yokai to actually survive eating humans was strictly taboo, but this girl was seriously not making it easy. Her scent was appealing enough, the scent of strawberries, but the taste of her blood was like a drug it burned in his mouth and made him crave more.

_...the blood that would attract all of Yokai..._

He frowned and leaned away from the sweet and intoxicating blood as he remembered the phrase. His mother had told him something about that, he just couldn't remember.

He growled in frustration, he was Sesshoumaru he wasn't supposed to be forgetful. Such slips were the pathway to an early grave.

He took a moment to survey his unconscious quarry and decided his initial conclusion had been correct, she was beautiful. Even with the cold sweat that was clinging to her skin due to her injury she was appealing. Her long waist length raven hair fell in a sleek waterfall to her slim waist. Her cheekbones were high and aristocratic, her lashes long and her lips a gentle rose colour. Her hourglass figure was refreshing in the modern era of skeletons.

He smirked in satisfaction as her breathing evened out and stopped being so laboured and her temperature calmed itself. She was recovering.

He tensed in abrupt agitation as he realised she was probably going to wake up soon, and when she did he was going to have a lot to answer for, if she didn't try and purify him first.

Her eyelids fluttered and heavily lidded blue eyes gazed up at his own hard gold ones.

She sat up and lightly touched the back of her head before deciding that was a bad idea and wincing "Son of a bitch" she intoned

This should be good he thought dryly.

A/N: I do not own Inuyasha and I never will. Anyway I hope you enjoyed and PLEASE REVIEW. Because reviews make me happy. Thanks to the lovely people who reviewed last time; Serenity digo19, GothicHime89, kouga's older woman and Moonlight X Luna.

The faires told me Doku means poison in Japanese in case you guys didn't know. Okay no buh bye.


	3. Chapter 3: Questions

Chapter three: Questions

Everything hurt. Actually that was a tad over exaggerated. Not everything hurt, just most of everything. What was surprising to the young Miko was that she was still alive enough to feel the pain. She had thought that the panther was going to kill her but she was obviously alive, if she was dead then surely she wouldn't be in as much pain. Something struck a chord with her and she realised that her injured shoulder no longer hurt, in fact it was... it was, well tingling. It didn't feel unpleasant exactly, but it wasn't something she liked either. She opened her eyes slowly and glanced up at the sunset.

Or at least that's what her addled brain made of the pair of golden orbs staring her down before she regained the last vestiges of her sanity. There was a demon looking down at her, she was on a leather couch in a blissful darkened apartment (her head was throbbing) and the demon appeared to be a lord if his markings were anything to go on. She didn't know much about demon markings, that was Sango's territory but she was pretty sure of her conclusions. But now there were more pressing matters, like the throb in her temple. She reached to touch her head encouraging a shock of pain and winced.

"Son of a bitch" she attempted to sit up and then promptly fell over backwards into the sofa's embrace.

"Actually I'm not" the demon spoke and her eyes snapped open to fix him with a questioning look

"Not what?" she asked wincing when she discovered that moving her jaw sent shocks of pain into her head

"The' son of a bitch'" he said "my father may have been an Inu Yokai but my mother was a Doku Yokai and therefore not a bitch"

She looked at him incredulously, her head felt like hippo's had been tap dancing on it and he was being pedantic? This was when she cottoned on to how damn gorgeous this demon lord truly was. His long silver hair was tied into a lose braid on one side of his face, he was intense looking and serious not to mention his voice was vaguely familiar. She pondered that for a moment but her pour abused head wasn't coming up with answers as to why he sounded familiar so she argued back at him. After all she was Kagome and those who knew her agreed, she could argue her way out of anything.

"If your father was an Inu Yokai then that makes your mother his bitch" she corrected him ignoring her protesting brain, it still hurt to mover her jaw though the peas that someone had placed by the back of her head were helping. "So you are a son of a bitch"

"Baka onna" he spoke in a cold tone and rolled his eyes. Her reactions to her situation were perplexing to him, she had just woken in an unknown Yokai's apartment and she was engaging in some banter with him? Shouldn't she have some kind of self preservation instinct?

"YOU!" she exclaimed and then winced as her loud explosion made her head quiver in pain, god she was getting sick of that.

"Me?" he asked still trying to figure out what was going on in her head. He inhaled serrupticiously and discovered she was not afraid; she was in pain, confused and triumphant? He was beginning to get a headache from the strange girl.

"You were the one who said 'pathetic'" she said earnestly "back with the panther's, when he was going to kill me there was a flash of green and someone who sounded really bored said 'pathetic'"

"That is the cause of you being triumphant?" he asked in a perplexed monotone

"Yep"

"Baka onna"

"Iie, baka Inu" she fired back

"Ningen" he accused

"Yokai" she shot back

Sesshoumaru sighed and ran a hand over his face, he was going to have to stop their insult trading session before they devolved to hitting each other with pillows or something equally as childish.

"This argument is pointless" he told her in the way a teacher chastises a small child

"It's fun" she corrected but upon seeing the unyielding look on his face she shut up and bit her lip to restrain herself

"Shouldn't you be afraid?" he abruptly blurted out realising he sounded frustrated but not being able to do a damn thing about it now he had said it. He wasn't used to humans regarding him without fear.

"Not really" she said stretching out her muscles to survey the damage "If you were going to hurt me then why'd you save me from the panthers?"

She was right. He had been outsmarted by a ningen onna and he was never outsmarted the thought riled him up to no end he growled at her and she smirked an overbearing seriously annoying smirk.

"Besides" she said eying his claws that glinted dangerously "if you wanted me dead I'd be dead already"

"Unless I wanted something from you" he countered smugly as he tossed his hair in an effeminate gesture that suited him strangely, not that one could accuse him of being effeminate to his face unless they were looking for a speedy end to their life... suicide by Sesshoumaru.

"All demons want from me is my head on a pointy stick" she rolled her eyes "apparently I make a good table ornament"

He raised a brow at her bizarre mind and its musings and wondered why she insisted on talking so much when it obviously pained her jaw and in effect her head. "What demon threatened you with that?" he asked

"I can't say I remember" she put a slender finger to her pouty bottom lip to suggest thoughtfulness "I mean in the midst of him trying to cut my head off I completely forgot to ask for his contact details"

It appeared that nearly everything that came out of the onna's mouth was sarcastic, but judging by the slight nervous tint to her scent it may have been a defence mechanism. "Are you hunted by many?"

Apparently he had distracted her because when she turned her face to look at him her eyes were unfocused "Huh?"

He had in fact distracted her from surveying the apartment she was in. It looked like some archaeologists had decided to have a party in the room. The furniture was eclectic ranging from and Edwardian bureau to a Victorian chest and the decor seemed to consist of pieces of art from different time periods, there were two swords that caught her interest on the wall for one was emitting intense evil and the other a strange energy the likes of which she had not seen before. There was a large bay window at one edge of the room and the blinds were drawn.

"I said are you hunted by a great number of demons?" he asked a little irked at having to repeat himself, it was not something he did very often

"Are those swords?" she asked getting up from the sofa and, ignoring her protesting muscles, walking over to the two swords mounted on the wall.

He resisted the urge to roll his eyes at her limited attention span. "Those are indeed my swords" he said "Toukijin and Tenseiga"

"You named them?" she asked turning her blue orbs onto him whilst her tone suggested he was crazy

"Tenseiga already had a name, but I profess to naming Toukijin" he said stoically

"You must be powerful"

The offhand compliment made his eyebrows disappear into his silver hair "Nani?"

"The power radiating from them is immense" she continued "you would have to be strong to handle such weapons"

"I am a Daiyokai" he confessed

She made an impressed noise and turned to examine a painting that hung relatively nearby the swords, before she could question him on that as well he stood and grabbing her arm he forced her to sit back in the sofa she had recently vacated.

"What was that?" she asked glaring at him

"I was talking to you before you so rudely cut me off" he stated

She rolled her eyes "You can't be much of a conversationalist then" she snorted

"Or you have the manners of a pup" he retorted

She pouted and glared at him folding her arms crossly, she reminded him off his stubborn grandmother in that moment and he shook away the petrifying image.

"Let's try a simple question" Sesshoumaru was patronising "What is your name?"

"Kagome" she replied "Kagome Higurashi"

"I am Sesshoumaru Taisho" he said

"Good for you" she said

He ignored her "Do you make a habit of being beaten to a pulp by Yokai?"

"For some reason I love getting my head bashed in, it's a habit I just can't kick, maybe I should get therapy, what do you think?" she rolled her eyes and sighed as if she found the entire situation uninteresting

"You would do well to remember not to try my patience" he growled at her

"Or what?"

She regretted the blasé reply as soon as it vacated her lips and tainted the air. So fast she'd barely finished the last syllable of 'blasé' she was lying back on the sofa with an Inu Yokai straddling her waist and holding her neck in a death grip, his deadly claws almost piercing her skin.

"This" he offered in response to her question. His face was impassive, if you couldn't see that he was currently squeezing the air out of one Miko's oesophagus you presume he was watching paint dry or something equally as boring. In fact the only thing that hinted to his broken patience was the fact that his left eyebrow was twitching and his gold eyes were shifting from gold to burgundy.

If she had been fully relaxed and recuperated she probably could have shocked him a little with her Miko powers but her body was aching and protesting and what little power she could generate was all centred around trying to stop the god-awful headache that was spearing tridents of pain into her poor brain. She had to remember not to pick fights with concrete.

"Gomen" she gasped instead, hoping to calm him down a little.

As soon as she apologised the pressure was gone, he was across the room stood by the huge window so fast it was almost as if he'd never been trying to stop her oxygen intake. Except she could still feel where his claws had rested against her skin and she rubbed her neck at the creepy feeling.

"What does the phrase 'Shikon no Tama Onna' mean to you?" he asked turning his once again saffron eyes on her

"A Panther said that's what I was" she shrugged and wondered what he was going to do if he didn't like that answer.

"Hn" he looked thoughtful for a moment "how often on average would you say you get attacked?"

"Once a week maybe" she paused and frowned "sometimes it's more than that"

"Do you recognise this?" he pulled the athame from where he had stashed it in his jacket pocket

"Should I?" she asked in confusion. He sighed as this sunk in, she didn't know and he was at a loss to explain his uncle's dagger being on the scene.

"Is there a common denominator with the attacks, do they say something that is common from one to the other?" he asked

"You mean apart from the general 'die Miko bitch'?" she asked rolling her eyes but sobered when he fixed her with his 'I'm going to peel the flesh off your body slowly and enjoy it' look. It was amazing how petrifying a look could be when you received it off this particular guy. She had been blasé with him before because of his humanoid appearance but when she concentrated her reiyouku now she could sense his aura, and it wasn't one to be reckoned with. She should have realised a humanoid appearance meant a more powerful Yokai but her brain was still working about a centimetre an hour and not improving. To her poor concrete abused brain human meant friend and beast meant run, that was as good as she was getting. God she was tired.

"Think" he ordered as her eyelids drooped

"But I can't" she pressed the frozen peas back onto her head "it hurts to think!"

He gave her a look which questioned her intelligence or lack there of and she glared at him.

"You try nose diving onto some lovely concrete with nothing but a human skull!" she snarled

He raised a brow and was at her side in the next instant.

"What?" she balked

"If you tell me about the similarities I can make the head ache go away" he promised sounding sincere, which was enough to make her distrust him.

"How?" she asked

"It is none of your concern" he told her

She rolled her eyes at the arrogance that literally oozed out of the Inu.

"They always say something about my blood making them stronger, or they smell my blood and look at each other funny" she shrugged not really knowing what to say as most of the attacks were similar any way.

"Interesting" he mused

"What's interesting?" she asked as he moved away from her over to a huge book case. The books that sat upon it were sinister and some had their own youki, none of them were exactly new either and they were all leather bound and title-less.

He picked one from the stack, it was bound in red leather and was emitting a fair amount of youki he flipped through the pages and nodded to himself seemingly satisfied.

"What?" she questioned again

"Miko blood is poisonous to Yokai who would see to hurt them, if the blood was ingested by a Yokai with no want to inflict harm then the blood would simply taste bad" he told her and then frowned as he realised that her blood hadn't tasted bad, it had been as water was to a man wandering the Sahara desert for two days. "As it is the blood of a being of purity it would kill them instantly"

"But the panther in the alley tasted my blood and he didn't die" she pointed out

"Hn" he mused as he tried to recall the tale his mother had told him, something about blood that called to all Yokai, perhaps it was this girl that she had been speaking of.

"You said you'd help me with my headache" she pointed out as she realised whatever he was thinking about wasn't going to be shared any time soon.

"Ah, yes" he said and smiled in a sinister fashion that had her scooting back on the sofa to get away from him but to no avail. He grabbed her ankle to stop her escaping and closed the other hand over her mouth and nose, effectively making her breathe through his clawed hand. Once he was satisfied that her mouth and nose were covered he opened the poison ducts under his claws and let a small amount of his carefully perfected sleeping poison to seep into her breathing orifices and smiled as her eyelids fluttered and drooped. She was out like a light.

He smirked, he wasn't too sure what the poison would do to her head ache but he knew that her incessant rambling was giving him a headache. So he shut her up.

He pondered the situation as she lay splayed on the sofa unconscious. It was obvious that there was something very special about this ningen if she had blood that defied law and an unusual number of demons tracking her. She was something not in his books, rather she was someone his mother may or may not have mentioned. Damn his forgetfulness.

Even though he knew there was no way he was going to pay for him to find out what she was, apparently she believed ignorance was bliss, he still wanted to. He wouldn't stop until his curiosity was sated and that meant a little trip to meet his favourite shady occult book dealer...

He shook his head and realised he was going to have to play delivery boy before he could go on his probably pointless errands. He picked the girl up and made his way to the car.

Once he had arranged her kind of comfortably on the back seat he got in and took off, cursing his bad luck for it to be raining now of all times. He shook the water from his long silver spun hair in a decidedly dog like manner that would've made Kagome giggle were she conscious.

He pulled out the he never used and using a little logic typed 'Higurashi Shrine' and it gleefully told him directions. He hated using the damn thing and was much more comfortable using his own sense of direction, but that was impaired by the fact he had no clue where he was going.

As he drove he pondered his reasoning behind helping the ningen sprawled on the backseat drooling on his upholstery.

There was the obvious reason that he was curious. But that didn't seem to cut it. Curiosity killed the cat and Sesshoumaru would never fall to the same plight as a lower neko. Indeed his own curiosity had never been enough to prompt an unfunded investigation.

So perhaps it was his strange addiction to her blood and scent. But then again he was not one to be ruled by such petty things as addiction. He believed the word to be something ningen made up to excuse their repeated mistakes and bizarre obsessions.

It could be linked to his love for his long passed mother and the fact that he was angry at himself for not remembering what she had told him.

It was also likely that it had something to do with the athame he had found on the fallen panther that smelled of his uncle. Now there was a mystery, which had now come to involve him, however indirectly.

Not that Sesshoumaru would ever admit it, but it was most likely a combination of all of the above.

He pulled up next to the shrine and was about to open the door and dump her on the pavement when he felt something inside him twinge. He didn't want to leave her out in the rain where she would probably get sick.

Wait, where had that come from? He did not care for ningen. He tried to rationalise his automatic response. It was simple, he realised belatedly, he didn't want her to get sick when he had gone through all the trouble to save her in the first place. There, that was a completely justified rational response. Too bad it wasn't the real reason.

He growled under his breath about not going soft and prepared to dump the ningen on the rain soaked pavement...

***

Kagome's eyes fluttered open to inspect a wooden ceiling that looked like it belonged on some kind of porch. She could hear the sound of rain beating against the wood and she sat up quickly when she remembered Sesshoumaru knocking her out.

She looked around and realised she was sat on the shrine steps wrapped in a man's jacket underneath the shelter of the shrine porch roof. Then a wave of nausea hit her and her headache returned with a vengeance.

"Shitty lying Daiyokai!" she exclaimed to the sobbing heavens. As if to empathise with her pain lightning flew across the darkened sky followed soon after by the deafening boom of thunder.

The door opened behind her to reveal a worried looking Miroku.

"What the hell happened to you?"

A/N: I do not own Inuyasha and I make no profit from this.

So how'd you like it? Review and tell me.

Thanks to the nice people who reviewed last time; Serenity digo19, MoonFlower77, Moonlight X Luna, kouga's older woman, sousie, GothicHime89 and pollywog222.

With special thanks to kouga's older woman for inspiring the opeing argument with her review.

Ja ne, Aimee-chan


	4. Chapter 4: information is scarce

Chapter four: Information is Scarce

In the dark of twilight a dark dingy back alley that was the favourite haunt of a family of sewer rats was not perhaps the safest place to be. Especially because Sesshoumaru was in it.

Since he had given the girl his leather jacket he had donned a long wool overcoat that kicked up in the harsh wind and flapped about his legs. The collar was turned up to avoid the chill getting to his neck, but that was simply a habit and not a necessity. He didn't feel the hold as much as a ningen but sub-zero temperatures served to cool his blood. Just a little.

His youki flared slightly as a warning to the lesser Yokai in the area that he was not to be messed with. The cities were notorious for their Yokai, even though most humans never seemed to realise the amount of deaths in the cities that they put down to 'gangs' were actually due to rival Yokai packs bickering over territory. Sesshoumaru thought it pretty farcical how the human 'gangs' seemed to enjoy copying the behaviour of Yokai by bickering over their own territory. He had to laugh at that, humans had no idea how to mark a territory and less of an idea how to keep their territory.

He came to a large apartment building that had a set of stairs leading to a dingy looking basement flat. The glass on the window of the door was not only frosted but painted black and if one looked carefully they would notice the door had seven different locking mechanisms. They were obviously meant to keep prying intentions elsewhere other than the less than humble abode, but to Sesshoumaru they were a mere irritancy.

He leant a hand flat against the door and applied as much pressure as was necessary to snap the locks in their holds and break the doorframe with about as much effort as pushing open an unlocked door.

The room behind the door resembled a library crossed with a disused cellar. The walls were made up of books and more books made their own teetering islands on the dank and dusty floor, some piles stretching up the ceiling so that they looked like they were holding up the cobwebbed roof. There was a small 1920's style till on a spindly desk that was coated in such a thick layer of dust it looked furry. There was a large Victorian table in the centre of the room on top of which were yet more piles of books and two wonky chairs. There was one small door that led to the rest of the space directly opposite the door Sesshoumaru had just invited himself through with an old fashioned brass plaque on it proclaiming the room the 'Store room'.

Sesshoumaru knew it to be not the storeroom any longer, even though it still stored books, it's primary use was as a home to a certain old man with a rather cowardly temperament. He could smell the elderly Yokai's fear mixed with slight annoyance from where he stood and he inwardly smirked at that.

"Come out Myoga before I break down another door to come and get you" he called in a soothing voice that was decidedly creepy coming from Sesshoumaru

There was a silence and Sesshoumaru smiled "Myoga" he tried again "I know you're in there, come out and I wont have to burn your precious books"

The door swung open pretty fast after that last remark to reveal a short pudgy man whose face and bald head was covered in a thin sheen of nervous sweat. His pudgy hands were twisting a handkerchief manically, obviously uncomfortable with his present company. The flea Yokai's true form was of course nowhere near as large as he appeared now, but due to extensive research using the vast array of books at his disposal he had discovered a way to retain his humanoid form. This was necessary today, being two inches tall was not exactly fun in the modern world.

"Ano... Sesshoumaru-sama, it's good to see you again" his voice cracked under the strain of the situation a few times and the lie would have been tangible even to a human.

At the lie Sesshoumaru parted his lips to reveal the razor sharp teeth behind. To a passing ningen it would look as if Sesshoumaru was merely smiling at the bowed man whereas in actual fact he was baring his teeth as a warning not to mess with him.

"I grow tired of your lies flea" he intoned and noticed with a certain sadistic pleasure that the little mans knees started to quiver. "I am here because of your knowledge and I sincerely _**hope**_ you will be able to assist me"

Myoga didn't miss the subtle way Sesshoumaru was hinting at punishment if his hopes were proved false and he gulped audibly, a sound that was strangely out of place in the otherwise silent room.

"H-hai... Sesshoumaru-sama"

"What do you know about a Miko whose blood calls to all Yokai?" he paused for effect "Or the Shikon no Tama Onna?"

If it was possible Myoga turned an even paler shade of white and his life flashed before his eyes as they widened in fear.

"I'm afraid I don't know Sesshoumaru-sama"

"You reek of deceit" Sesshoumaru was not amused "Your library contains books on everything within our world and they have more youki than you do" he paused for effect "so who has sealed your lips?"

"I'm sure I don't know what you're talking about" he stammered

If you knew Myoga and unfortunately Sesshoumaru did, then you would know that under normal circumstances Myoga would have told him what he needed to know in order to get him to leave. The fact that he was purposely withholding information and lying badly however meant something was amiss.

Sesshoumaru smiled and wrapped a clawed hand around the flea's neck casually letting his claws pierce the thin membrane of his skin and cutting off both the blood supply to his head and the oxygen supply to his lungs. He went an interesting mix of both red and blue; resulting in a kind of blotchy purple hue to his skin which Sesshoumaru regarded for a second before returning to his line of threatening.

"Who?" he barked

"It was fifty years ago!" he protested in a gasped and disjointed sentence and Sesshoumaru relinquished his hold on Myoga's neck so fast that he fell to his knees on the dusty floor.

Sesshoumaru settled onto one of the spindly chairs with a lithe grace and gestured magnanimously for him to continue.

Myoga simply sat on the ground and breathed heavily for a while; recovering. Then he looked up at Sesshoumaru with baleful eyes before speaking.

"A woman came into the shop, a Miko as it were. She was pretty as I remember" he ignored Sesshoumaru's snort at a ningen being pretty "and she had a young girl with her, but the kid didn't have any Miko powers. The woman was scarily powerful too and she told me to show her all the books I had on that particular subject. Then she took then from me and opened a portal on that wall" he paused to point to the wall behind the Inu Yokai

"And?"

"And she sealed all the books I had on the subject inside the wall and then threatened me in much the same way you chose to" he winced in remembrance "but her hold burned more than yours"

"Hn" he paused to consider the facts as they had been presented to him "what was her name?"

"It was fifty years ago" he protested once more, but hastily rescinded his protest when Sesshoumaru growled at him and rubbed his chin "I don't likely remember, but she did say that one who was not of her blood would not be able to open the portal"

Sesshoumaru paused to consider this and stood to walk over to the wall where the portal was said to lie.

He shoved the bookshelf that stood against the wall roughly out of the way, causing it to topple over and deposit it's cargo onto the floor and he distinctly heard Myoga mutter 'just like her, no regard for books'.

On the wall that had been concealed behind the shelf was a circle roughly sketched in chalk against the deep green crackling wallpaper. Inside the circle the kanji for 'protection' was written and when Sesshoumaru reached out to touch the wallpaper next to the ward he was shocked with residual reiyouku.

He frowned in shock, the flea had not been lying when he had said she came fifty years ago and yet there was still residual reiyouku? He already appreciated the fact that the priestess had to be strong but that was ridiculous. It required a large amount of power to open up a portal, as a portal was basically a no space concealed within a real space, to put it simply it was a magical storage space that didn't exist tangibly. Obviously in order to inject a cavernous space into a wall required a great deal of power but the fact that there was still enough residual reiyouku on the wall around the portal to shock Sesshoumaru suggested a Miko wielding a damaging amount of power.

He hadn't even touched the portal's seal and he had been burned, which was interesting.

"Sugoi" Myoga whispered and Sesshoumaru looked over to him with an eyebrow raised in question

"I had to make that bookshelf out of dragon scales that were blessed by a holy man to withstand even being by that wall. Only last week a Kappa demon tried to touch the wall and was flung out of the store!"

Sesshoumaru nodded and contemplated this new information. He was arrogant, but not arrogant enough to think that it was because of his powerful blood that he was still inside the store. Eventually he realised it was probably due to tasting the Miko's blood yesterday. Which of course opened up a new question, did that mean that this woman from fifty years ago was an ancestor of Kagome Higurashi? "Do you not keep records flea?" Sesshoumaru questioned

The flea winced "I keep records of the people who _purchase_ books, however she only moved the books within the store and therefore there was no need to take her name" Sesshoumaru growled and Myoga shrugged helplessly "That's what she said, and I am not one to argue with a being of such power"

"Indeed" Sesshoumaru snorted, he knew of the flea's cowardice only too well. It was the only way to survive when one was a flea; bend to the will of those more powerful than you. It had enabled Myoga to live a long life, so he wasn't complaining.

"What did the books speak of Myoga?" he asked the flea

"I do not know" Myoga winced and Sesshoumaru growled so he quickly continued in an attempt to placate the Inu "They were delivered here upon the death of your mother, they came from her personal library. The very next day, before I could even catalogue the books the Miko arrived"

"The books belonged to my mother?" Sesshoumaru asked in interest, this explained why he had the memories of her voice speaking those words that confused him.

"Yes, she was very specific in her will that the books were to be left to me" Myoga frowned and shrugged "I have no idea why though, she only once bought a book from me"

Sesshoumaru fought the urge to rub his temples in stress; he had come to the flea to get answers, not to be bogged down by yet more unanswerable questions.

Myoga attempted to stop shaking even as he watched Sesshoumaru become more and more agitated and nearly died of shock when he pulled an athame from his pocket; certain his life was going to end.

"What do you know of this flea?" he asked in a bored voice

Myoga nearly smiled in relief, he wasn't going to die...yet at least. He reached out and took the athame from Sesshoumaru marvelling at its craftsmanship "I do not know of the athame itself, you would be wise to consult Totosai. But the inscription reads 'to draw the power of the blood' in Latin."

Sesshoumaru nodded thoughtfully; at least he had some answers, even if he had more questions too. He removed the athame from Myoga and put it back into his pocket.

"You did well not to die" was all Sesshoumaru said before vacating the room so fast it was hard to tell he had actually been there in the first place, if you ignored the fact that there was one overturned shelf and a barely standing flea Yokai.

"I need to get better locks" Myoga muttered darkly

***

Meanwhile in a darkened manor house expensively decorated in furs and ivory and turn of the century portraiture. In a room with a bear skin rug and several swords mounted to a wall that emitted youki and sat in a leather arm chair was a certain Doku Yokai.

This Doku Yokai was incensed and his poison dripping claws were dug into the arm rests of the expensive chair he was perched inside.

The poor servant that had been delegated with the honour of telling him the bad news lay cowering on the floor clutching their face where he had burnt it with his poisons.

"You are sure it is gone?" he questioned in a deadly grating voice that sounded like bones being sawed, the bedraggled servant whimpered and nodded, praying for no more punishment.

"Very well" he stood from his chair and walked into the corridor, he had no desire to linger in the room. The poison injected into the servants face was enough that he would be dead in an hour and though his nose was not one of his most sensitive senses he did not enjoy the reek of death. The scent of blood was something he indulged in often, but it was normally only as the victim was dying. Death was not something he was comfortable with saturating his air.

He strode into the drawing room and summoned his butler.

"Go to the Higurashi shrine and see if another Miko is yet born" he ordered in a bored voice whilst pouring himself a glass of sake "but before that send my one of my whores" he smiled revealing his glistening poison covered fangs "I have some aggression to work out"

The butler nodded and bit back the urge to shudder before retracting himself from the room and sending someone to retrieve the dead body. He smiled sympathetically at the young woman who was ushered past him into his masters room, but she did not return the smile, her eyes were soulless now. She was a doll and that was how his master liked them.

***

Kagome was annoyed and both Miroku and Sango were doing their best to sooth her, in between bouts of groping and smacking of course.

They had all just gone out grocery shopping for the evening meal that Miroku was cooking and were heavily laden with bags of purchases. Sango had steered it so that Kagome was in between her ass and the overly friendly hands of a certain man, but apparently his arms were longer than that and he was doing a brilliant job of groping over a large distance.

"Cheer up Kagome-chan" Miroku said happily as he once again rubbed the rounded contours of Sango's bottom. Nobody knew exactly how he did this with two hands full of shopping, but he was a master in his art.

"Hentai" Sango hit him again in the head, causing him to see stars for a moment.

"As much as his Hentai ways annoy me, I think hitting him in his head is inflicting brain damage and therefore doing more harm than good" Kagome pointed out with a pouting scowl marring her features

"Come on Kagome stop pouting" Miroku said

"Am not pouting" she pouted

Miroku and Sango rolled their eyes in synchronicity

"Is it the fact her ruined your favourite bra?" Sango asked

"I'm wondering if he's a big Hentai like Miroku" Kagome growled "who cut's someone else's bra anyhow?"

"I can think of plenty of reasons" Miroku said and Kagome and Sango hit him with a synchronicity that had him quite literally seeing stars for a moment.

"Pervert"

"Then what is it that bothers you? The fact that he dropped you back home perfectly safe? The fact that he saved you from the panther Yokai? Or the fact that he looked after you?" Miroku enquired

"All of the above" Kagome said growling "I feel like a damsel in distress! And I am not in need of being saved!"

They rounded a corner and came face to face with a group of twelve of the most ugly Hebi Yokai the three of them had ever had the displeasure of meeting.

"I wouldn't be sssso ssssure" the leader of the small posse replied to her last statement.

The humans all took a step back in disgust; these reptilians were obviously waiting for them and ass such hadn't bothered to keep up their humanoid appearances. They still had the human body shape (all the better to fight with) but their skin was covered with their scales, their tongues were darting everywhere and their eyes were not blinking.

"Great" Kagome growled in annoyance

"You truly do attract a lot of unwanted attention" Miroku commented

"Yep"

"This is going to ruin the food" Sango commented dryly as the Yokai moved forwards as one.

The three humans relinquished their grip on the bags they held and food clattered to the concrete beneath them.

One snake tried to tackle Miroku around the waist and was thrown agilely over the dark haired human's shoulder whilst delivering a swift roundhouse kick in the midriff of another snake as it attempted to sneak up on him.

Sango in the meantime found herself blocking a barrage of attacks from two Hebi Yokai at once cursing the fact that her Hiraikotsu was not suitable to carry with her at all times. She smirked though as she pulled her knife from her leather boot and twirling in a circle slit the throats of the two Hebi attacking her, just in time to doge the right hook from the next Hebi.

Kagome kicked one hebi in the face, breaking his nose with the heavy heel of her boot. She then purified the face of the one who was going to grab her from behind. Before grabbing the sutra's that were sticking from the back of Miroku's pocket and throwing them at the remaining Yokai purifying them to dust.

"Did anyone see us?" Kagome asked

Miroku did a discreet check and shook his head whilst Sango peered into one of the hastily discarded bag "The eggs are broken" she said

"That's Yokai all over, no respect for the daily groceries" Miroku chuckled

"Bite me" Sango said feeling that he was poking fun at her

"That was easy" Kagome scoffed "I really will never understand why demon's pick fights with us, what hope could they possibly have against a monk, a Miko and a demon slayer?"

"Over confidence will be your down fall Miko" said an undesirably familiar voice and Kagome whirled around to stare into the deep golden shifting depths of Sesshoumaru's eyes.

"You know, you're kinda cocky considering I could purify something _very_ sensitive to oblivion" she threatened glancing meaningfully down at his crotch with a little bit of malicious intent.

Sesshoumaru smirked "To do that you would have to touch it, do you really have the guts Miko?"

A/N: Wheeee! I did it! And it took me long enough! Sorry for the wait I was in Denmark for a week! I do not own Inuyasha!

Reviews! Thanks to y'all who reviewed the last chapter at fanfiction dot net : juusan'ya, Ladybug2009, sousie, kouga's older woman, MoonFlower77, angelapage, Moonlight X Luna, Serenity digo19 and GothicHime89. Thanks for your reviews guys!

On Dokuga I'd like to say thanks to...

Rei: Yes he did slice her top, but not all the way off, it was enough of an incision to get at the wound and he only sliced through her bra strap, nothing too much was on show and bra's can function okay without a strap so she didn't really notice because of her headache and being in a strange place with an even stranger Yokai.

Katlady: happy now? Specially for you, even though I'm tired and jetlagged, hope you liked it!


	5. Chapter 5: to have the guts

Chapter five: To have the Guts...

Previously...

"_Over confidence will be your down fall Miko" said an undesirably familiar voice and Kagome whirled around to stare into the deep golden shifting depths of Sesshoumaru's eyes._

"_You know, you're kinda cocky considering I could purify something very sensitive to oblivion" she threatened glancing meaningfully down at his crotch with a little bit of malicious intent._

_Sesshoumaru smirked "To do that you would have to touch it, do you really have the guts Miko?"_

Now...

Sango blushed bright red and was suddenly glad that while violent she was not as brazen with her words as her friend. Miroku grinned inwardly as he recognised a fellow Hentai in the older Yokai. But it was Kagome's reaction to the comment that was most entertaining.

Her eyes popped open in some kind of shock whilst she briefly wondered if she had just been propositioned, which she realised belatedly she just may have been. Miroku wondered whether she was going to fall over in shock and the image brought a smile to his features.

Then she blushed.

But this wasn't a normal blush like Sango's. Oh no. It was a full faced tomato reminiscent blush, a blush that not only encompassed her entire face, but also spread down her neck and across her chest from what they could see above the neckline of her shirt.

"Wh-wha..." apparently coherent sentence structure was not a privilege she was blessed with when this severely embarrassed.

Sesshoumaru chuckled, a deep reverberating sound that seemed to resonate through his chest. At the sound of his laughter she snapped out of her embarrassment and turned to glare at him.

"I have plenty of guts!" she insisted

A slender eyebrow was raised "Prove it"

She faltered and realised there was no way on earth she was going anywhere near him. Damn, she hated losing. He smirked at that and she glowered at him, her cheeks still burning with the remnants of her blush.

"Whatever, I'm above playing your games" she huffed folding her arms across her chest stubbornly.

"Sure" he scoffed ruffling her hair on purpose to demean her as a child. She glared at him and fussed with it to get it to return to normal.

He wondered why he felt slightly disappointed, but decided not to dwell on it.

"I take it you are the Yokai who saved my little sister?" Miroku questioned stepping forward to address Sesshoumaru . Sesshoumaru looked at the Houshi and then across at the Taijiya as if they were merely slightly interesting bugs. Unworthy of any real attention, but enough to pass a moment assessing. The Taijiya was strong, that he could tell, though milder in temperament than the Miko and the monk, well the twinkle in his eye reminded him of his father. Which meant he was either a lecher or a comedian.

Lecher. He deduced as the man's wandering hands found the pert bottom of his Taijiya friend and he ended up kissing the pavement. The Taijiya blushing brightly.

"Hn"

"What are you doing here anyway fluffy-sama?" Kagome asked sardonically and his eyebrow twitched. He reminded himself that he wasn't supposed to kill ningens, but it was so tempting.

"That is none of your concern" he said silkily "and I desire that your desist referring to me in that way"

"Or what?" she bit out and then was overwhelmed by the strangest feeling of déjà vu. She had said those words before... it hadn't been the smartest thing she had ever done. He grinned in a feral manner at the hint of fear in her scent as she processed what she had just said. And then the stubborn streak settled firmly back into place and she crossed her arms and glared at him.

"I have no time for you and your obstinacy" he said sighing and attempting to brush past her. He was quite surprised however when she latched onto his arm as he brushed by and dug in her heels. Her pitiful human strength had absolutely no effect on him whatsoever but the sheer audacity of a human touching him was enough to make him stop.

"Where are you going?" she asked looking up at the towering Daiyokai with large doe eyes. It made her seem innocent and sweet, but he knew better. It was all a ploy.

He sighed and resisted the urge to maim once again; she seemed adept at bringing that urge out in him. "I am going to see a Yokai about an athame" he said

"You don't really look like an athame wielding type of guy" Kagome replied dubiously twirling a strand of her hair around her finger

"It is not mine" he replied and then he realised bizarrely somewhere amongst the conversation they had begun walking again, dragging him with them.

They seemed to be going in the correct direction, he was travelling them same way, so he decided against resisting the flow. Undoubtedly the Miko would attempt to stop him if he tried to elude them and quite frankly he couldn't seem to care enough to leave their company.

The slayer and the monk, he noticed, lagged a little behind him and the Miko and he could sense their slight unease. Undoubtedly they, being sensitive to auras, could sense how powerful his was. He had no idea however how the Miko remained unafraid, was she ignorant? He somehow doubted it, stubborn yes but she seemed intelligent enough, when she wasn't prattling.

"So whose is it?" she asked titling her head to one side like a curious puppy

"It belongs to my uncle" he said frowning down at the bizarrely hyper and inquisitive woman. She didn't look ten years old, but sometimes she seemed to act that way.

"Right" she stretched the word out and sighed "not really much of a conversationalist are we?"

"If I wanted to carry out a conversation with you then I would" he pointed out

She shivered "So cold" she mocked "you were a lot more talkative in your apartment" she accused

"I was trying to gain information, thus leading the conversation, whilst you were twittering"

"I do not twitter!" she was aghast and tried to punch him in the arm, but failed miserably when he deftly evaded her arm. She growled.

He sniggered, she was amusing as humans went. They rounded the corner and Sesshoumaru watched as she walked up to the steps of the shrine that loomed over him omnisciently.

"Well...bye I guess" she said stuck by how uncomfortable she suddenly was, hadn't they only just been teasing one another like old friends? She was surprised at it and abruptly blurted the first thing that came into her head.

"How old are you?"

Sesshoumaru who had turned to flee the strange woman paused but did not turn back before raising a brow at her, though she could not see he could almost guarantee she knew he was doing it. "I am three hundred"

Her mouth opened wide in shock and he smirked as he heard the popping sound of her mouth becoming slack "More like twenty three in human years" he supplied

"I'm seventeen next week" she offered and he raised a brow again. He had not asked for her age, nor did he particularly care. He turned to look at her, stood on the steps to the shrine with her black bag clasped gently against her chest, her eyes wide and trusting with their strange innocence and her hair lifting and swirling around her face in the breeze. She was both childlike and cynical, and he doubted that anyone else would ever be able to pull that one off except her.

He inclined his head to her and was about to turn to leave when he saw it.

_**Save her**_

Youki blades were flying at the Miko from the shrine steps. That was peculiar enough to make Sesshoumaru question his senses for the first time in his life before acting fast and pulling the Miko out of the way.

The two collapsed backwards onto the ground with Kagome spread across the annoyed Inu Yokai's chest.

Her brother and friend could be heard running towards them, but Sesshoumaru and Kagome had little time to spare thinking of them as a purple acid whip tried to take off their heads.

This time Kagome took charge of the situation and rolled them both out of the way. Silently she cursed herself for being so concentrated on the Yokai underneath her that she had been oblivious to everything else. Such mistakes were likely to land you in a coffin.

Miroku and Sango got to them just in time to have to throw themselves bodily into the hedge row to avoid being decapitated by some youki blades.

"Show yourselves" Sesshoumaru growled as he pulled himself and the Miko upright. He was not best pleased that some insignificant Yokai had resulted in him becoming dirty and he was most displeased about the fact that they had been able to sneak up on him. He pushed Kagome roughly behind him and noted that for once she made no word of protest.

"Ah, Sesshoumaru" an amused female voice commented as if Sesshoumaru was a passing acquaintance in the street and not a blindingly livid Yokai.

Two human looking Yokai appeared at the foot of the shrine steps. One male, reserved, blonde and green eyed. The other shorter, cocky, female, red haired and purpled eyed.

"We came a knocking for a Miko" the woman said in a cold arrogant old English accent and her venomous purple eyes drifted over Kagome, who fought the urge to shudder "and I believe you beat us to her"

"Hana" Sesshoumaru flickered disdainful eyes over the female before glaring at the male "Joben"

"What do you want?" Kagome asked frowning at the two Yokai Sesshoumaru obviously knew, but blatantly didn't trust as far as he could throw them.

"You" the female grinned exposing her human looking teeth. She had no fangs, neither did, nor did they have claws. The only thing that identified them as non human entities was the pointed elfin ears they both boasted.

"Or more actually we were sent to determine whether there was yet another Miko born to the Higurashi line" said the one identified as Joben

"Shall we spill her blood to determine her lineage?" Hana smiled again and Sesshoumaru snarled

"Who sent you here?" Sesshoumaru demanded noting how the two human companions of the Miko had risen from the foliage and with surprising skill and stealth were circling back behind the two Yokai to prepare a counter attack should the need arise.

Kagome, due to the way she was concealed behind Sesshoumaru's back had not seen them and was busy trying to work out what kind of Yokai Hana and Joben were exactly. With most Yokai it was relatively easy to work out their species, but these two assailants were proving tricky.

"Who sent us?" Hana pretended to ponder and then rolled her purple eyes "Who do you think?"

"_He_ sent us" Joben sounded like he was clearing things up, but he only succeeded in making Kagome more confused.

Sesshoumaru on the other hand seemed to understand perfectly and he growled out his anger "Why does he want her?"

"Why does anyone want the Shikon no Tama Onna?" asked Hana sarcasm dripping from her tone, she was brought up short however by the look on Sesshoumaru's face. "You mean to tell me you don't know?" at this she began to cackle her eyes glinting with malice "To think lord frosty doesn't know what we, mere soldiers, are privy to!"

They're soldiers? Kagome wondered paying closer attention to the two she realised they were both dressed in similar attire of black trousers, black boots and a long black cloak, though they wore different breast armour. Hana's seemed to be made of some kind of polished bone that fit her lithe form snugly and Joben was wearing what looked like Kevlar but seemed to be infused with some youki.

"Hana" was the cautious rebuke from Joben; he seemed to be more wary of Sesshoumaru than she. "It would make sense if you did not know" he addressed Sesshoumaru "but surely before your mother—"

Whatever he had been attempting to say was cut off abruptly in light of Sesshoumaru's vicious snarling. It seemed he was not best pleased at the mention of his mother.

"Touchy" Hana mocked and then ducked rather quickly as Sesshoumaru's poison whip hit the air where he face had been mere seconds before.

"Damn" Joben muttered as he realised the situation had abruptly spiralled out of control; Sesshoumaru was mad "Hana catch the girl!" he ordered before attempting to lunge at the Daiyokai and Miko. Only to be thrown off course as a Hiraikotsu intersected his path.

"Shit" he swore upon seeing the monk and the Taijiya looking none to friendly. He conjured his yellow poison whip and set forth, silently hoping that Hana would be able to apprehend the Miko quickly.

Hana threw a hand out at Sesshoumaru in a sweeping gesture and her youki blades swirled forth to be roughly dispatched by his poison whip.

She smirked and held out both of her hands in a gesture that if not accompanied by noxious poison would have looked like surrender. As it was it caused Sesshoumaru to lose his sense of sight in the thick purple fumes. He heard Kagome gag and realised that whilst he was immune she was not.

"Get the Miko!" Joben yelled from somewhere within the smoke and Sesshoumaru growled. Two hands fisted in the back on his shirt and he felt Kagome lean on him as the noxious poisons got to her and she began to faint. She was fighting it though, stubborn as she was.

He spun around and supported her with his left arm whilst cupping her face with his right hand.

"Fight" he murmured in her ear and Kagome tried to. But it was an uphill struggle; she could feel fatigue caressing her mind with its soothing fingers as the poison wove its way into her body.

He shook her gently as he realised she was slipping into unconsciousness. "Purify it!" he commanded

She scrunched her eyebrows at the command but ignored him.

She stiffened as she felt a flash of pain in her arm and lazily attempted to purify the air, causing nought but a small rush of clean air. But it was enough. With a small reprieve from the oppressive poison she was able to regain her motor functions and send out a larger burst of her reiyouku that instantly purified the air.

And then she succumbed to unconsciousness.

Sesshoumaru caught her before she hit the floor, remembering how irritable she had been after her last encounter with the ground. He glanced around for Joben and Hana but only found the monk and the Taijiya, sealed inside Miroku's protective barrier.

Sesshoumaru growled viscously.

***

Atop the shrine roof...

"Well that went well" Joben looked at Hana accusingly

"I was about to grab her but she purified me!" Hana bit back, rubbing her Miko scorched hands and wincing.

"You know better than to antagonise Sesshoumaru" Joben scowled

She folded her arms across her chest "He just makes me so mad" she fumed

"You will have the honour of telling him that you failed" Joben was unforgiving

"I didn't fail entirely" she gave a wicked smile and pulled out a small dagger she had been concealing up her sleeve. Clinging to the tip was a flash of dark red blood.

"You acquired proof" his tone was disbelieving and she glared at him

"I'm not entirely incompetent you know" she muttered "I did have a backup plan in case she escaped once we captured her"

"You may just have saved your life" he murmured

"Whatever, let's go" she said jumping from the roof, Joben in close pursuit.

***

Sesshoumaru scooped Kagome up into his arms easily and walked over to the other two humans. The monk lowered his barrier wearily, it had been a powerful barrier to be able to put up with Hana's poison and it was taking its toll on the monk.

Belatedly Sesshoumaru wondered how the burst of reiyouku that had purified the noxious air had avoided touching him. He glanced down at the Miko in his arms, apparently even when fighting to remain conscious she had enough sense to protect him from her reiyouku. He would never admit it, but he was impressed.

"They were Doku Yokai weren't they?" Sango asked "I have never seen any before, only read of them"

"Hn" Sesshoumaru said watching with a raised brow as the monk collapsed and the Taijiya attempted to stop him falling like a sack of potatoes.

"How do you know them?" she asked as she lowered Miroku to the ground in a tender gesture that while noted by the Daiyokai was not commented on.

"They are soldiers of my uncle" Sesshoumaru answered as he bent to deposit the Miko at the feet of the slayer.

He stood and turned to leave when the voice of the Taijiya caught up to him.

"Wait!" she yelled "where are you going?" she asked

"To see a Yokai about an athame" he said repeating his earlier words

"Huh?" Sango asked but she was talking to thin air.

Sesshoumaru was already long gone.

A/N: So did you like it? I'm sorry to all of you who wanted Kagome to take Sesshoumaru up on his little challenge, but I'm afraid it's a little early for those kinds of shenanigans! Maybe later ; )

By the way Hana has an English accent because she's from England, this is still set in Japan, hence the shrine!

So thanks go to the lovely people who reviewed on : sesshylurver6518, kouga's older woman, Kitsune Diva, GothicHime89, Serenity digo19, Itachisgirl88 and Neko4.

Thanks go to those on : Snowfall and Kags521. Thanks for reviewing!

Also on Dokuga:

chevonne Knowles: sorry for disappointing you! *bows and offers cookie as compensation*

katlady: your review made me laugh and was so funny I had to show my bf who happened to be in the room at the time! He thinks I'm crazy... anyway I'll gift wrap this for you kay?

Sunset in love: Inu will be making an appearance very soon promise!

stars: here ya go!

MLMonty: thanks! I nearly died when you reviewed considering how I kinda love your stories, I was in denial that you would review!

So now you know what to do don't you everyone? REVIEW!


	6. Chapter 6:Old Acquaintances, New Allies

Chapter six: Old Acquaintances, New Allies.

Sesshoumaru approached the wall that looked as any other wall did. But if one looked closer they would notice how the bricks were slightly darker and there were no cracks, though it appeared old, no chips of mortar missing. Sesshoumaru smirked slightly; at least the old coot was more fastidious about his personal security than Myoga.

He pressed both of his palms against the wall feeling it burn at them in resistance before caving and slowly drawing him into a lovers caress. He was completely enveloped by the blinding warmth and light. Until abruptly he was dropped and almost fell forwards onto his knees.

He growled slightly as he regained his balance and frowned around at the now familiar labyrinth of dark murky moist walls. This was the labyrinth that led to Totosai.

He pulled a torch from one of the wall brackets, shaking his head at the older Yokai's old-fashioned behaviour. He had always wondered where exactly this labyrinth was in relation to the wall that guarded it, but Totosai refused to reveal that. For all Sesshoumaru knew it could be located within another dimension, and he wouldn't put it past Totosai to be as paranoid as that. Even if he was an old coot. After about half an hour of walking aimlessly Sesshoumaru was getting pissed. The old sword smith was cunning, this labyrinth was never the same twice but it also meant that when Sesshoumaru did find him he was going to have not-so-pleasant encounter with his fist.

Eventually he made it to the cave that Totosai worked in, the old Yokai was stood over a furnace, anvil in one hand and a sword-in-construction in the other.

He glanced up at Sesshoumaru and calmly breathed fire over the sword in his hand before pounding it with his hammer again. Sparks flew around the chamber and Sesshoumaru watched dispassionately as they landed on his person.

"Totosai" he demanded the elderly Yokai's attention as Totosai turned back to the anvil, paying him no attention.

"Totosai!" he reprimanded harshly.

"Oh," the elderly Yokai turned around and his eyes widened in mock surprise. "didn't see you there pup."

Sesshoumaru doubted it. He watched as Totosai placed the sword on his forge and dug in his ear.

"So what do you want pup?"

Sesshoumaru ignored the intentional insult, replying would get him nowhere. "This athame" he produced the blade from his pocket. "tell me about it."

Totosai tootled over to Sesshoumaru and took the blade from his palm. Balancing it on its flat on his index finger, he studied it closely.

"Hm" he frowned "I'd say it's maybe a gram heavy on the right side. Probably shouldn't have made it out of silver, white gold is much more magically conductive."

"Totosai." Sesshoumaru cautioned "stay on track."

"I cannot help but comment on faulty workmanship." he grumbled as he lifted it to his nose to sniff at it. "It smells like poison" he muttered "and bones, probably made from the bones of a Doku Yokai."

"It has lingering traces of my uncle's scent" Sesshoumaru acknowledged.

Totosai nodded. "They are not his bones though."

"No, the blade holds more power than he ever did." Sesshoumaru noted.

"There is something else," Totosai frowned. "the blade is oddly familiar to me."

"What?" Sesshoumaru was intrigued.

"I think I have seen it before." his eyes became distant as he remembered. "ah, yes, your mother was reading a book with a drawing of this inside it. I tried to ask her about it and she shut the book, refusing to tell me."

Sesshoumaru growled, that was just great, he had even more questions now.

"There is something else." Totosai added.

"Yes?"

"It is infused with Miko tears." Totosai was in awe. "This blade was made for the sole purpose of killing a Miko, the tears so that her spiritual energy cannot counteract the poison."

"Will it work?" Sesshoumaru enquired.

"This blade is stronger than this old one and you combined, it would certainly kill any Miko that stood in its path."

"If it is as evil as you insist why then is there no malignant aura surrounding it? Like Sounga?"

"It would seem the weapon is devious, it is shielding itself from detection. The aura you feel now is merely a portion of what it is capable of."

Sesshoumaru glared down at the blade. Why had his uncle possessed it?

"Thank you Totosai." he inclined his head to the Yokai.

"No problem pup, now, leave this old one in peace. I have a commission to ready for tomorrow." he handed the athame back to Sesshoumaru. "find your own way out."

Sesshoumaru resisted the urge to groan. He was probably going to get lost on his way out too.

***

Souta and Kagome walked steadily along the street towards the shrine that was apparently 'haunted'. Their Ojiisan had requested that they go have a look see. Miroku had said he would come but had vanished at the last minute when a pretty female in a red hatchback pulled up outside the shrine. Figures.

Souta was armed with his katana and Kagome her bow and arrows but, truth be told, Kagome was not expecting a disturbance.

"You think it's really haunted?" Souta asked conversationally

Kagome snorted "Yeah and Ojiisan has spiritual powers" she sighed "nine times out of ten these things are rumours developed by the kids in the area who want to prank each other"

"But it could be a haunting right?" Souta asked

Kagome grinned at his enthusiasm; it was his first ghost busting job. "Yeah, guess so"

Together, they rounded a corner into the street where the shrine lay and stopped short.

"Okay, that's creepy" Kagome noted tucking a strand of hair behind her ear.

"No wonder there are rumours" Souta agreed.

The shrine was at the top of a bedraggled looking hill. The path leading to the shrine made of dirt and framed by huge evergreens that leant on each other and created a foreboding natural tunnel. The shrine itself was derelict and the roof looked to be lopsided. It was obviously out of use and the doors and windows were boarded up. No light seemed to shine on the shrine, much to their discomfort, and as they walked up the dirt track the noises from the outside world became muted, like they were far away.

"The shrine has an aura" Kagome commented in surprise.

"Why do I get the feeling its aura isn't benign?" Souta inquired

"Yeah, it's almost like" Kagome squinted a bit "It's like the shrine is in pain"

"Is that normal?" Souta asked; he had never been very good at reading auras.

"Not really" Kagome mused as they approached the shrine "most shrines have an aura of purity and light due to being places of worship"

"So it might be haunted" Souta suggested

"Or something..." Kagome frowned as they drew closer to the old building.

"It's tiny" Souta commented

"Yeah, it was never lived in, unlike our shrine" Kagome pulled on the boards across the door and nearly fell on her bottom. For boards that were nailed down they came off really easily!

Slowly edging through the new gap in the boarded up door they entered the main worship area of the shrine, complete with its dark and dingy interior and musty smell.

Souta wrinkled his nose "This goes way beyond the boundaries of derelict"

Kagome nodded, "There's a weird energy in the room" she mused stretching a hand out as if to catch the air and closing her eyes.

"Ah!" Kagome opened her eyes to find Souta was on his hands and knees on the ground.

"You okay?" she asked worriedly

"Yeah, I just tripped over something" he wrinkled his nose and tried to return to his feet. The ground beneath him shifted and his suddenly fell forwards and sank into the ground. He yelped as the wood became a mud like substance that tried to drag him down.

"Souta!" Kagome yelled. Trying to go to his aid she found her feet sinking into the wood slowly; she was unable to move.

"What the hell?" Souta demanded as his torso came closer and closer to the hungry floor.

"That's it!" Kagome clicked her fingers "the shrine isn't in pain, it's lonely!"

"So it's trying to cure its loneliness by eating us?" Souta was sardonic. "great! Now less epiphanies more trying to escape, we can talk about why the shrine is misbehaving later!"

Kagome rolled her eyes "What do you suggest we do? We can't purify a benign being"

"You call this benevolent?" he demanded "it's trying to eat us!"

"But not vindictively!" she protested.

"I don't think you can get eaten alive in any other way than vindictively!" Souta argued as his stomach and chest came into contact with the mud-like ground. "Ah, it's cold!"

"Hush" Kagome reprimanded "I'm thinking"

"Think faster!" he implored.

"I need rope!" she yelled.

"This isn't an action adventure movie neechan!" Souta was beginning to panic "there is no conveniently placed rope."

"Shit" she muttered glancing around. Her frantic eyes fell upon a low hanging wood beam. A proverbial light bulb lit up in her mind. "This is going to ruin my bow." she grouched

Stretching her arms high and thanking anyone who was listening for low ceilings, Kagome carefully pushed her bow through the triangle shaped supports and wedged it there. Clinging tightly she wrenched herself from the ground and whooped triumphantly.

Souta, now up to his chin, frowned "You're either going to break your bow or fall back in"

"Shut up, it'll be fine, besides I didn't have any rope" she cautiously extended her foot and hooked it on the back of Souta's t-shirt and with a squelching noise pulled his top half from the floor. The roof creaked and her bow groaned.

"You're going to fall" Souta pointed out.

Kagome ignored him and used the other hand to hold onto the beam itself rather than the bow. Souta slowly, using his sister as a rope, pulled himself from the floor.

By the time the two of them hung from the rafters they were both panting.

"Now what?" Souta asked.

"Pray" Kagome growled as she swung her body and sailed through the air, smashed through the remaining boards on the door and rolled across the ground outside before she came to a stop.

"That's got to hurt" Souta cursed as he repeated the action of his sister and flung himself onto the dirt next to her.

"The shrine" Kagome panted as she rubbed her nearly dislocated arm and tested her ankle "has to be being controlled by someone on the outside"

"How'd you figure?" Souta asked as he prodded her ankle to ensure it wasn't broken. He had fared better than her; he hadn't taken the boards down with him.

"If the shine really wanted to eat us then it wouldn't have let us on the rafters" Kagome reasoned "besides the shrine has been lonely for ages and it hasn't tried to eat anyone before, at least, no reports for missing persons have been filed around here."

"So who's doing that?" Souta asked.

"Peculiar, you two catch on quick for ningen." a sing-song voice called from the tree behind them.

They whipped around the find a tall, strong looking demon stood on a tree branch. His dark obsidian tresses fanned out in the slight breeze and his red eyes were cruel and impassive.

"Who are you?" Souta demanded

Kagome frowned as she realised the stranger was able to perfectly mask his aura. She'd never seen a demon able to do that before.

The man chuckled; it was a spine chilling sound. "If I told you that then I would be a fool" he replied

"You manipulated the building into attacking us? Why?" Kagome asked

"The art of manipulation is understood by few Miko. I manipulated this shrine because I could, because it's ironic that a shrine, a place of worship, would try to harm a Miko and a child with spiritual powers" he smirked darkly "you may call me Puppet Master and know that I do not work for _him_"

"Him?"

"I used to. But I have discovered him to lie even more proficiently than me, he would send me to my death before it would harm _him_" he glared into the distance "and so I will watch _him_ fail in his plans"

"You don't know what he is planning do you?" Kagome taunted

He stiffened and glared at her "_He_ did not divulge it in its entirety to me" he admitted "but I know he wants you" he narrowed his eyes at Kagome "and as such I will make sure _he_ doesn't have you"

Souta and Kagome tensed as they heard the building behind them creak. Turning around they paled as the shrine rolled itself up into a ball and became a stumpy brown orb with offshoots waving around it.

"Whoa" Souta was awe struck

"He's using his aura to manipulate its structure?" Kagome asked in shock "but that's impossible unless..."

"That's right" he grinned "I just activated my puppet, instead of manipulating the shrine I am now in complete control of it. And I just gave it the order to kill you."

"If you kill me you'll never know why he wants me." Kagome pointed out.

The Puppet Master smirked "I do not care; it is much more pleasing to know that you are dead."

That said, he cast them one last vicious look before melting into the forest, abandoning them to the wrath of the shrine.

"Wah!" Kagome cried out as a tendril of the shrine wrapped around her ankle. It yanked harshly, spilling the Miko to the ground with a harsh thud and then proceeded to drag her across the ground on her back.

"Kagome!" Souta yelled drawing his katana to chase after her. He was immediately cut back by the stabbing tendrils that were more like hardened tentacles. "Kagome!"

"Damn it" she shrieked as she was pulled towards the main body of the writhing mass. She pulled an arrow from her quiver and lurched forwards to stab at the one holding her ankle. It released due to the fact it had been vaporised and Kagome rolled forward a few metres with the help of her previous momentum.

"Souta, reiyouku works on it now that it is being controlled!" she yelled.

"Well it's about time" Souta growled as he held the sword up vertically in front of his face. Pressing his index and middle fingers against the blade horizontally he used his reiyouku to activate the katana's magic. The kanji inscribed upon the blade glowed with a bright blue light and suddenly the shrine was dissolving as he sliced through the tendrils with ease.

Souta's reiyouku was not as powerful as his sister's; he needed a channel for it, which was why he wielded his sword. It was the perfect conductor for his reiyouku as he couldn't throw his energy like Kagome could.

Kagome fell back to join her brother and soon her arrows were also tearing up the shrine.

"You're getting good at that" Kagome commented as Souta parried yet another blow with his katana.

"After training for nearly seven years you'd hope so" he responded as he sliced through a strand that had attempted to catch his back while he wasn't paying attention.

"This is pointless." she growled as she shot an arrow at the writhing mass.

"It just keeps growing back." he gripped.

"If we could destroy it from the centre" Kagome mused. "then the doll binding the shrine would shatter."

"Can't you fire an arrow at it?" Souta asked.

"There isn't enough energy in an arrow to make it work." Kagome blocked a blow with her bow and stabbed a tentacle type thing with an arrow. "If I try to put more energy in an arrow it'll melt or combust"

"So what do we do?" Souta asked panting as the constant fighting wore on.

"If I could get into the centre I could emit a pulse of reiyouku." Kagome told him.

"It would suffocate you before you had the chance." Souta shook his head. "No way."

"Are you bossing me around now?" Kagome asked, a little peeved that he'd shot her answer down in flames.

"Duck!" Souta cried as a tendrils lashed out at Kagome's legs, knocking her onto her hands and knees. Whilst preoccupied with his sister Souta had taken his eyes off the game and way quickly thrown back into a tree by a flying tentacle.

"Souta!" Kagome yelled as she stood. She staggered as all the tendrils attacked her en masse and she was thrown every which way by the blows she wasn't able to deflect with her bow.

A tendril slammed into her stomach, effectively winding her whilst another lashed around her neck and smashed the Miko into a tree. She fought off the white spots invading her vision from the force of the blow and reach for her bow, only to find she had dropped it two metres away.

It pinned her there, slowly suffocating her.

It seemed the Puppet Master was a sadistic bastard.

So Kagome's day wasn't really going all too well. In hindsight she probably shouldn't have even gotten up that morning. But now was not a time for such thoughts. She renewed her struggles, purifying the strangling tentacle only to have it grow anew. The never-ending mass was mocking her.

She needed some kind of miracle.

"Goraishi!"

"Kaze no Kizu!"

Or some demons...

A/N: I don't own Inuyasha. *peers around hopefully* Are any of my readers still waiting for updates? *ducks as angry people emerge* Sorry! I have no excuse except chronic laziness, I got really in to writing Strike a Pose and neglected everyone else! But now I'm back focusing on this again! So please review, the reviews you give me keep me writing.


	7. Chapter 7: Green Eyed Monster

Chapter seven: Green Eyed Monster.

The shrine was obliterated by the combined forces of the two attacks and Kagome could not help but sigh (once her airways had recuperated). She and Souta had been trying to merely cut the connection so that the shrine could survive. The newcomers, obviously, had no such qualms.

That was demons all over, no respect for material objects.

Picking herself up off the floor she calmly collected her bow and arrows before walking over to Souta.

"You okay?" she asked, kneeling by his side.

"Yeah" he groaned as he tentatively touched the back of his head.

"Hey wench, we just saved your sorry ass aren't you gonna say anything?" one of the two demonic destroyers enquired.

She glanced up through narrowed eyes at the speaker. He was a Hanyou, looking to be about twenty one, with touchable white dog ears and golden-burgundy eyes.

"I'm sorry" she bit out "I was too busy checking my brother wasn't dead!"

The other rescuer, a demon- wolf by the looks of the tail- with blue eyes and brown hair pulled into a pony tail, laughed at the Hanyou.

"She told you!" he snorted "'sides, we get paid to do this shit"

"Paid?" Kagome was curious despite herself.

"Yeah," the wolf demon grinned toothily "we're police"

"He's police?" Kagome looked over at the Hanyou. "He's an idiot."

"Hey!" he protested. "Least I wasn't about to get gutted by some stupid shrine."

"And he has no people skills." she commented dryly.

"You've got that right" the wolf commented dryly. "I'm Kouga by the way. We both work in the demon side of the police, solving crimes related to the spiritual. The Paranormal Investigation and Capture Unit."

"Kagome," she replied "shouldn't you tell me your detective ranking and such?"

He grinned and her eyes widened as she recognised the faint lecherous smirk. "I never introduce myself formally to a beauty like you."

Souta rolled his eyes even though it hurt his head.

The Hanyou snorted "Pull the other one baka-ookami!" he gripped "she's just a stupid kid."

"Come over here and say that so I can purify the fluffy ears off your head" Kagome threatened.

"That's Detective Inuyasha Taisho" Kouga filled in the missing details.

Kagome frowned and looked over at Inuyasha; he had the same last name as Sesshoumaru? But then the sword at his hip caught her eye and her attention was diverted.

"That sword" she spoke up "it's really seriously powerful"

Inuyasha smirked in a self-satisfied sort of way. "Yeah, what of it wench?"

He really needed to stop calling her wench. "Have you ever tested its full potential?"

The Hanyou nodded earnestly. "Back when you could kill someone who deserved it." he patted the sheath fondly. "It can kill a hundred demons in one swing."

"But the baka has gotten rusty at it and can't remember how he used to go about it." Kouga grinned boyishly.

"Shut it wolf." the Hanyou grumbled.

"Why are you two here anyway?" Souta asked.

"Looking for a fugitive" Kouga explained as Kagome pulled Souta to his feet. "The puppet Master"

"Ah, the guy who tried to kill us," Kagome rolled her eyes. "he went back the way you came"

"You mean you saw him and you're still alive?" Inuyasha demanded.

"Yeah," Kagome shrugged. "he tried to kill us remember?"

"No one who has ever fought him has lived to tell the tale" Kouga whistled appreciatively.

"We aren't sitting ducks" she tossed her hair "we can take care of ourselves"

"You look pretty beat up now, bitch" Inuyasha scoffed tossing his hair over one shoulder.

Kagome growled at him and Souta tiredly held her back. "Stop arguing, I don't have enough energy."

"We'll take you two home." Kouga offered gallantly as he took Souta's other arm to help the younger sibling walk.

"Thanks." Kagome said in genuine gratitude as she bent to pick up her bow.

Inuyasha growled and followed and frowned as he placed himself downwind of the girl.

"Hey, bitch, why do you smell like Lord Asshole?" he asked rudely.

"I don't know who Lord Asshole is." She said in a disparaging tone.

"Sesshoumaru, my bastard half-brother." He growled.

"Oh, so you are related" she glanced at him over her shoulder and raised a brow. "I don't see any resemblance. You're far too loud" she seemed to ponder it "but I guess you're both aggressive, except he's more passive aggressive."

Inuyasha glowered at her back. "Answer the damn question bitch!"

"He saved me from some panther demons and from some poison demons" she explained shrugging in a blasé fashion.

Inuyasha snorted. "Lord Asshole, save you? Yeah right, he'd rather cut his own dick off."

"Must you be so crude?" Kagome sighed heavily as Kouga helped her lower her brother into the car.

"Keh."

"You're so awfully witty" she commented.

"Get into the car mutt-face" Kouga ordered.

"Shut up baka-ookami" Inuyasha growled, but he got into the car anyway.

***

Sesshoumaru pulled up outside his sire's house and sighed plaintively. He really didn't want to do this, especially since there was a distinct chance that he would run into Inuyasha's insufferable mother Izayoi.

He didn't really have anything against her except she was so submissive it was painful. She was meek and mild and silent and not Sesshoumaru's type of person. Whenever she was in a room with him and without his sire's presence he could smell the stench of dread and fear emanating off her; it poisoned the air.

He wasn't here to see his father, that would be pointless. His sire knew next to nothing about his mother, theirs had been a mating of convenience and not of love. That was no secret. Sesshoumaru was nearly certain his father knew nothing about his mother other than her name and where she was buried.

That had never gone down well with him as a child. His mother had been murdered when he was ten and he had always carried the belief that, if only his father had cared even a little about his mother, her murder could have been prevented.

They had never caught his mother's assailant. There had been no scent in the room except hers and Sesshoumaru's for no other entered her chambers. And as such Sesshoumaru had never truly gotten closure. Probably why he was a PI.

He was here to see Misako, his mother's old hand maid who he knew still worked in the manor. Knocking on the door he made the butler promise to only bring him Misako and to not bother Izayoi.

He was seated in the huge reception room off the foyer and given a cup of tea.

Misako appeared promptly, as was usual for the old eagle Yokai, and bowed in respect.

"Master Sesshoumaru, what can I do for you?" she asked somewhat timidly.

"Sit"

She sat and nervously began playing with the hem of her right sleeve.

"Am I to believe that you were privy to my mother's secrets?" he asked as he sipped from his cup.

She looked startled and shook her head "My lady never entrusted all of her secrets to anyone. Though she did share a few with me, they were of scant importance and information."

"Hn" Sesshoumaru frowned.

"Most of her secrets were recorded in her many books." The maid volunteered timidly.

"Yes," he frowned "I had heard of them, she gave them to Myoga did she not?"

"Yes" the woman nodded

"Do you know why?"

"She said it was because it was the last place _he_ would look." Misako frowned "she was always very wary of _him_."

"Everyone who wishes to live should be wary whilst in _his_ presence" Sesshoumaru agreed "and it was a clever ploy; he would never enter that place, it is much too run down for him to consider such a thing."

She smiled slightly "She used to tell you stories." she ventured. "Once she told me that the key to everything was in those stories."

He paused thoughtfully at that as he remembered; but it had been around fifty years since his mother's death; his memories were slightly foggy.

_...the blood that would attract all of Yokai..._

So that was it; that was all he could remember? Great. Just great.

"Did my mother impart any other secrets unto you?" he asked, he was hopeful but outwardly stoic.

"She was constantly scrying" Misako tapped her chin thoughtfully. "Always after the same family, looking for someone within that family, she would always tell me that soon 'she' would be born."

"Do you know who she was scrying for?" Sesshoumaru was intrigued.

The maid looked disappointed "No, my apologies young master" she said sorrowfully. The her eyes lit up and she clicked her fingers "but I have the hair she used in the chest she left to me when she passed, wait one moment for me young master"

With that, the maid scurried from the room quickly.

Sesshoumaru smiled; he had always liked Misako, it showed in the way he remembered her name, she had played with him as a child when his mother was busy and she had always looked after his mother when he was not around.

The door opened and Misako hurried back inside, holding a piece of hair out to Sesshoumaru.

"Hopefully the spell should still work on it" she said breathlessly; she had run to get this for him. "My lady had a very specific spell to activate the scry, it was not the usual spell because she was looking for someone who had not been born yet."

"You know the spell?" he asked.

"Yes" she nodded enthusiastically "let me get you a bowl"

She disappeared and reappeared near instantly with a bowl of water which she set down on the table next to him.

Dropping the hair into the bowl she repeated the incantation she had heard her mistress speak many times "_Find the one whose blood sings, the one born from the line of power,_ _trace_ _them, where they be._"

Sesshoumaru raised a brow, that was a deviation from the usual 'Find them trace them where they be', probably because the spell was designed to track a person who could exist in the future and not the actual owner of the hair.

At once the surface of the water became black and fluctuated as if someone had dropped a pebble into it. The black surface rippled once more and suddenly Sesshoumaru was looking at the very familiar face of Kagome Higurashi.

"Kagome, I wonder, what did my mother want with you?" he murmured.

***

"You called for me master?" a female vampire asked, her head bowed in reverence to her master, her shiny red hair pulled back from her flawless face and secured with chopsticks.

"Yes, rise Akae." The cold voice commanded.

The vampire sat back in the traditional style and stared at her master with covetous eyes.

"It has recently come to my attention that the Shikon no Tama Onna may be alive once again." He spoke softly, almost caressingly and the vampire's eyes narrowed in anger.

"Is that so master?"

"Yes, this girl is special, she is chosen, or at least that is what I believe" he frowned and presented her with Hana's dagger.

She stiffened with jealousy and glowered at the carpet, he smirked sadistically.

"She is special to you?" she asked softly

"It would seem so" he nodded "find her, taste her blood and tell me if she is the one I seek. If she is, you as a bloods expert, would know, correct?"

"Yes master" she nodded.

"Then be gone." He waved a hand at her in dismissal and the vampire stood and stalked from the room in a terrible jealous rage.

Why was this girl so damn important? She wasn't worth the ground her master walked upon and yet, suddenly, she was needed? Coveted?

Unacceptable.

She inhaled the scent along the blade and her eyes flashed red.

The hunt was on.

***

Kagome stood on the porch steps and smiled at the ruckus that she could clearly hear through the shrine doors. Her mother, though used to seeing Kagome come home in a state, was not so used to seeing Souta get beat up and so, as soon as Kagome and Kouga had dragged the boy into the house, she had devolved into mother hen mode. It was quite interesting to listen to.

She was sweeping the shrine steps in the traditional Miko garb her Ojiisan always made her wear when attending shrine duties, but listening to her mother and Souta was making the usually boring task quite amusing.

She glanced out as the sun's last tendrils of light disappeared beneath the horizon and sighed.

"Ano... excuse me?" a feminine voice asked softly causing Kagome to nearly jump out of her skin.

Kagome turned around and smiled at the pretty newcomer to the shrine. She was dressed like an old Hollywood starlet, with a silk scarf around her hair and sunglasses perched on her delicate nose. Her lips were painted a dark red and her bone structure was delicate and waiflike.

With the scarf on Kagome could not see her ears, and so had no idea whether or not the woman was a demon. Flaring her aura she relaxed slightly when there was no response from the woman; she was probably not a demon.

"Hi. Can I help you?" Kagome asked kindly.

The woman smiled and glanced around the shrine. "I heard that the Goshinboku rests on these grounds. Is that true?"

"Yes" Kagome smiled "would you like me to show you?"

"Thank you" the woman smiled as Kagome led her around the back of the shrine.

"It's beautiful" the woman cooed. As she removed her sunglasses the gaze upon the tree properly. Kagome frowned at the colouring of her eyes; they were pitch black. "Oh, I'm so sorry, I never introduced myself. I'm Akae" she held out her hand to shake.

"Higurashi Kagome" Kagome supplied, taking the woman's hand.

Akae smiled and held onto Kagome's hand in an inescapable grip as she pulled off the silk scarf and let it flutter away in the breeze. Long tendrils of scarlet hair were revealed as the wind coaxed them into a dance. Her ears were human looking, but the tattoo that traced its way around her neck signified something else.

"You're a vampire?" Kagome asked, silently praying this was really a social call and not a dinner visit.

"Such a smart little one" her smirk was decidedly sadistic as she used the hand in her grasp to pull Kagome to her. Twirling her roughly around, she held Kagome's arm at a painful angle behind her back as she twisted Kagome's head to expose her neck.

Kagome growled and sent out a pulse of her reiyouku; nothing happened. She tried to wriggle free; nothing happened. The woman was unmovable.

"Ah, yes, now you see the difference between demons and vampires" she chuckled "reiyouku has no effect on us and fighting us is similar to fighting a brick wall."

"What do you want?" Kagome growled.

"I want to know why you mean so much to _him_" she frowned and sighed "I was always _his_ favourite you know, back before you matured."

"Him again?" Kagome groaned. Someone really needed to explain to her who 'him' was.

"He asked me to find out if you were the one he was looking for." She glared at the small human woman "but I don't share. So I think it's best if I just put you out of your misery"

"Huh?"

The vampire smirked as she breathed in the scent at the nape of her neck. "What a curious scent little Miko; honeysuckle, morning dew, strawberries being the most obvious but also ... fresh snow and...power" she chuckled "indeed it is a most strange scent."

"Thanks." Kagome bit out mordantly.

"My pleasure." The vampire smirked as her lips pulled away from her teeth and she bit down harshly on the neck of her captive.

Kagome's back arched as she screamed silently, her eyes rolled back into her head and her mad thrashing abruptly dislocated her captured arm from it's shoulder.

It burned. Suddenly she could feel every vein mapped out in her entire body and it was black fire. Burning, corrosive and so inescapable. She thrashed, disorientated in the vampire's arms as the vampire continued to greedily drain her of her precious life blood.

Akae finally dropped the Miko harshly onto the pavement and smirked in cruel satisfaction. "It seems you really are special." She chuckled darkly "I can already feel the new power in my veins, such a thrill!" she kicked the Miko in the ribs and smirked again "it doesn't matter though. I will tell my master he made a mistake, the poison I pushed into you will slowly and painfully paralyse you"

"Ungh" Kagome groaned as she tried to pull herself up, her dislocated arm hindered her movement and her limbs were so heavy.

"Did you know that's why vampires go for the neck?" she smirked "not only is there a nice artery there, but out biting the neck paralyses the vocal chords for a while. Now that the venom has been released, however, you will die." she shrugged "Oh well."

"Such a foolish vampire."

A/N: I don't own Inuyasha. Please review!


	8. Chapter 8: Rescued Again? Seriously?

Chapter Eight: Recued Again? Seriously?

Previously:

_Did you know that's why vampires go for the neck?" she smirked "not only is there a nice artery there, but our biting the neck paralyses the vocal chords for a while. Now that the venom has been released, however, you will die." she shrugged "Oh well."_

"_Such a foolish vampire."_

Now:

Kagome glanced up as Sesshoumaru jumped down from the highest branch of the Goshinboku and landed with the finesse of a cat.

"Who are you?" the vampire was instantly on guard and moved into a defensive stance.

Sesshoumaru rolled his eyes "That is the problem with vampires, so ready to bite without gaining proper information on their target."

She growled at him.

"That ningen is under my protection." he declared. "I would appreciate it if you would stand down."

"Unlikely." she spat.

"Have it your way." he shrugged and lashed out with his poison whip, the vampire sprung into the air and watched the ground break around the impact of the whip.

"Impressive, but my master carries more power." she sneered.

"I doubt it" Sesshoumaru rolled his eyes. His whip lashed out once more and this time struck her across the cheek, her head snapped to one side.

His eyes widened in shock; the blow should have taken her head off.

"It seems her blood truly is a miracle." she smiled. "Prepare to die."

Kagome closed her eyes as the Taiyokai and the vampire met in a deadly dance. She really wasn't sure who was going to win in this battle; the vampire was just so strong.

There was a horrifying crunching noise and Kagome's eyes snapped open of their own violation.

They had both bitten down on the others neck. Sesshoumaru's eyes were blood red, his face elongated, almost bestial, and his fangs gouging out the vampire's throat. Her eyes were a darker murky red, her finger nails extended into brutal claws, her fangs elongated and imbedded into his pale throat.

"Sesshoumaru!" Kagome panted out.

Sesshoumaru's eyes swivelled over to her and he forcibly threw the vampire away from him. She hit the ground with a thud and rolled a few times. He grabbed a handful of her hair and, stepping on her back, he pulled her into an uncomfortable looking arch.

"Now you die bitch" he snarled and reaching down he snapped her neck with a sickening crunch. "Close your eyes" he barked the order at Kagome, who dutifully closed her eyes.

There was a popping, grating, squelching noise followed by a simmering hiss and Kagome winced. The only way to kill a vampire is to separate the head from the body. She was glad he had told her to close her eyes.

"Kagome." She heard him call her name and opened her eyes, there was no body, just acidic gloop and half a head sticking out of a bush. She shuddered.

"Paralytic poison" she used her last strength to tell him and then stared at him, almost completely immobilised. She could still blink, sort of, but she knew it was only a matter of time before that stopped too and then her organs would stop working.

He bent down next to her and calmly popped her arm back into the shoulder socket. She was incredibly glad that she was paralysed for that; she had dislocated limbs before, it was no picnic.

"Kagome, I need to administer a poison into your system to counteract the vampire's, it will burn a lot worse than what she did to you."

Kagome had no energy to nod but blinked at him instead.

"Very well." he murmured as he supported her upper body and titled her face up towards his. Carefully opening her lips he lowered his own down onto hers and she tensed as the poison burnt a path down her throat scorching her oesophagus and burning her organs. She began to thrash uncontrollably; like muscles spasms. He held her fiercely in place and focused on releasing his poison into her system.

Eventually, Sesshoumaru's poison overpowered that of the vampire and Kagome lay still once again.

"You can sleep now Kagome." he reassured her.

Her blue eyes fluttered shut and he spared a moment to wipe her face of the pained tears she had shed. Arranging her carefully in his arms, he stood and walked to the door before rapping on it twice.

It was whisked out of his way by a middle aged woman with short brown hair who shrieked.

"What did you do to her demon?" she became frantic quickly.

"Okasan!" a young boy came out of the living room and glanced at his sister and the demon holding her. "You're Sesshoumaru right?" Souta asked

Sesshoumaru nodded, relieved that she had told someone of his existence.

"What?" Mrs Higurashi looked up at Sesshoumaru "You're the one who saved my children a few times?"

"Yes." he said "I just saved your daughter from a vindictive vampire."

"Come on" Souta motioned "I'll show you her room."

The young boy led the demon up a flight of stairs, past a stunned old priest, and into a blindingly pink room. Sesshoumaru laid her out on the bed and turned to leave.

Only to find his way barred by a spatula wielding Mrs Higurashi.

"Oh no you don't!" she pointed the spatula at the Yokai "you are going to stay here until she wakes up in case you really did do something to her."

"Okasan!" Souta groaned as he smacked his head against the wall in despair.

"That is final Souta!" the woman strode from the room and Sesshoumaru raised a brow.

"Is she always quite like that?" Sesshoumaru asked

"Yeah" Souta chuckled "if one of us is hurt she is. I'd take a seat, I've got to go and help Okasan with dinner."

Sesshoumaru nodded at the human and watched him leave.

Taking up residence in a chair next to her bed he inspected her room. She was obviously not a typical teenager: there were magazines strewn across her desk but they were the latest additions of 'Guns and Ammo'; there was a mirror on a vanity desk but the makeup was bruise covering only; there was a large wardrobe that was merely the home of her fighting apparel; there was a stack of papers on the bedside table but they were half written ofudas.

His gaze fell back onto the girl and he drank in her features, his keen ears checking for a steady pulse. Such a strange ningen Miko and so coveted by so many.

He had decided to take her to Myoga's and see if she could open the portal in the flea's shop but now it would seem he would have to wait until she recovered to go anywhere.

He ghosted his fingers across her temple, checking for a fever. If one arose his poison had been too strong and she would die, if she remained at an acceptable temperature he was content that all would be alright.

He was sure she would survive; in his experience Miko's were tougher than the average human.

Whilst watching over the peaceful Miko he reflected on all the information he had thus far. He knew his uncle had once possessed a powerful weapon designed to kill Miko's. His uncle had sent his two most trusted servants after Kagome and one jealous vampire. They had both mentioned something about Kagome's blood which probably tied in with the inscription on the athame.

His mother had also been tracking Kagome, or at least waiting for her to be born, but he refused to believe it was for the same nefarious purposes his uncle had wanted her for. Then there was the Miko who had sealed his mother's books in the wall, perhaps she had known his mother? It seemed likely that she had been some kind of ancestor of Kagome's. After all, he was pretty sure her blood had stopped the shock he should have received upon touching the wall.

He must have sat there for hours, his thoughts running him around in circles, but it seemed hardly any time had passed before Kagome's eyes fluttered open.

"Every time I meet you I end up unconscious." she muttered as she flexed her poor, sore muscles.

"I have that affect on people." he quipped.

She grinned and then grimaced as it caused her jaw to ache. "I've got to stop getting beat up so often."

"Indeed."

She rolled her eyes and then groaned. Everything hurt damn it!

"How are you?" he asked cautiously.

She looked at him in surprise "Are you enquiring as to my health?"

He glowered at her "I merely need to ensure you are capable of leaving with me soon."

"Huh?"

"I need to take you to a bookstore."

Kagome's mother, understandably, was reluctant to let Kagome leave with the demon after all that had happened to her in the course of the day. Eventually, with promises that Sesshoumaru wouldn't let anything happen to her, she had acquiesced and allowed them to let her leave.

***

Miroku sighed forlornly. That hadn't gone as well as he had originally planned.

Azami, like all of his favourite girls, was married. Definitely married, the kind of fickle married woman, who, though she loved the eroticism of a hidden lover, loved money more. So, though she was a good lay she was also risk free, she wasn't going to decided to leave her husband and elope with him, or something equally as scary.

So she was a safe bet, great sex with a woman who wasn't clingy was his idea of paradise. And with the world shaping the way it was, it was becoming easier and easier to ensure his lifestyle was just as he liked it.

However, sometimes things went awry. Like today, Azami had promised her husband was out of town on business until tomorrow night and things had been progressing nicely until they had heard the screech of tires on the gravelled drive.

He had been out of there in a flash; no way did he need the drama of a husband confrontation. It went with the territory that sometimes these things transpired, but Miroku tended to avoid them at all costs.

And so now he was walking down a lonely street, forlorn and frustrated, wondering why god hated him.

He paused mid step as a wash of youki buffered his senses. Glancing up, he was amazed to see two youki fly amiably by like he couldn't see them. He smacked himself on the forehead; they didn't know he could see them! They were probably shielded from human eyes, but the question was, why?

Interest piqued, Miroku turned to follow the demons. And it had nothing to do with the fact that they were women. Nothing at all.

***

Myoga fell out of his chair as the youki assaulted his senses. Why in the hell was he back already? His mind running in circles he wondered whether or not he should try to escape.

"Escaping would merely allow me the thrill of the hunt." Sesshoumaru's cold voice interrupted his panicked thoughts.

Shaking, Myoga stepped into his shop and smiled nervously at the human girl before bowing to Sesshoumaru.

"What can I help you with... Sesshoumaru-sama?"

"Hn" he inclined his head to Kagome and once again, much to Myoga's dismay, threw the shelf away from the wall.

"No respect for people's property" Myoga grouched lowly.

"Wow" Kagome stroked the symbol inscribed into the wall.

"Can you open it?" Sesshoumaru asked quietly.

She glanced at him over his shoulder, "I'd need to know what was in it."

"Books"

She frowned and shrugged "Here goes nothing." Tracing her index finger around the pattern she concentrated her reiyouku into her finger and pulled. The door broke and her eyes opened.

Sesshoumaru blinked as the wall dissolved and the blackness behind it was revealed. Carefully she plunged her arm inside, the texture of the space like some kind of jelly and pulled out four books bound together.

As soon as her hand was clear the space sealed itself back up.

Sesshoumaru delicately took the books from her and laid them onto the table; they still smelt of his mother.

"They are your mother's?" she asked softly, laying her hand on his elbow comfortingly.

"Yes." Sesshoumaru caressed the cover and opened the first book with a tangible reverence.

"Huh?"

A/N: I don't own Inuyasha. Hope you enjoyed this chapter and please review!


	9. Chapter 9: Answers Are Hidden

Chapter Nine: Answers Are Hidden

They all looked down at the first page of the book.

There was nothing there.

Quickly thumbing through the rest of the pages in the book they found nothing. The same could be said about the other four books. The only writing at all was on the cover and all it read was 'Shikon no Tama Onna'.

Sesshoumaru punched the desk in frustration.

"Well that's not good." Kagome murmured as she dragged her fingers across the cover of a book, absentmindedly stroking Sesshoumaru's elbow soothingly. "Who do you think did that? Your mother? Or the Miko who hid them?"

"That Miko was probably your ancestor" Myoga commented "It would take strong familial ties for you to be able to open her portal"

"My grandmother was a Miko." she commented offhandedly. "Perhaps it was her?"

"It would seem so," Myoga nodded thoughtfully. "but I wonder what magic was used to erase the writing."

Kagome frowned "Well, everyone seems to think this is all about my blood right?"

Sesshoumaru frowned at her, wondering where she was going with this.

"Then let's give it my blood" she hastily gripped one of Sesshoumaru's clawed fingers, sliced her finger and bled onto the page.

"Baka!" he hissed, grabbing her finger and sucking on the small abrasion. When it was healed he pulled back "My claws have poison!"

She was unconcerned by the tingling sensation in her finger and staring at the page. "Look Sesshoumaru!"

Words formed on the page in crimson lettering and Sesshoumaru immediately recognised the hand as his mother's.

_With his blood the key will be discovered._

Underneath the script a beautifully ornate piece of metal that looked suspiciously like the top of a key.

"Unless she's referring to Myoga I'd say you should start bleeding dog-boy"

Sesshoumaru allowed several drops of his blood to hit the yellowing parchment and blinked in surprise as the top most part of a key materialised.

"Ah!" Myoga exclaimed "I've heard of this before! Using an object like a book to conceal a considerably more valuable item. It is like the portal the Miko created but more clever as the person trying to unlock secrets will undoubtedly think that the book contains a written secret rather than a physical one."

The Miko and the Taiyokai blinked at the flea in shock. Kagome because she hadn't known the flea to be so knowledgeable and Sesshoumaru because he was finally seeing the reason his father allowed the parasite to live.

Eventually the evidence of their blood lay on the table; one completed key that Sesshoumaru had fused together with his poison, large and chunky yet ornately designed and ancient looking.

"What is it for?" Kagome asked glancing at Sesshoumaru who was looking at it with a peculiar expression in his eyes.

"I'm not sure." He murmured "but my mother used to wear this key around her neck on a silver ribbon."

She sighed in frustration "That doesn't help figure out why all those demons want me, nor does it help with finding out why he wants me, or why you know him" she glared at Sesshoumaru "and what about the Puppet Master?"

"Puppet Master?" Sesshoumaru asked in surprise.

"Oh yeah, he tried to kill me and said that he was trying to prevent him from getting what he wanted. But it was okay, your brother saved me"

"Half-brother." Sesshoumaru corrected absently "You seem to top the Most Wanted lists little onna. And if you have met Inuyasha you understand how difficult my life is."

She rolled her eyes "He was charming." she replied sarcastically.

"Indeed." he nodded to Myoga "we will be taking our leave, there are certain things I must discuss with the Miko."

***

Kagura and Kanna landed in the clearing the Puppet Master had told them to arrive in. Kagura was dispassionately holding the head of the slain vampire away from her body.

"This thing stinks." She grumbled.

Kanna's hollow eyes locked on the head before she turned to gaze at the trees.

"I see you brought her." the Puppet Master smirked as he emerged from the point Kanna was observing.

"What's left of her." Kagura scoffed tossing the head to land at his feet. It rolled to look at him with hollow bloody eyes.

He chuckled "It would seem Sesshoumaru is as deadly as I was warned."

"If that's what happens to people who cross him I'd rather not get in his way." Kagura shook her head vehemently. She'd met him a few times before and though he was pretty he was also deadly.

"We aren't going to fight him," the Puppet Master smirked "that would be foolish. I merely need another puppet."

With that he grabbed the head by her hair and held it up at eye level.

"Disgusting" Kagura grumbled.

"Grow roots my dear" he spoke softly to the disembodied head and Kagura turned away in revulsion as the thing grew back its long-lost body.

The Puppet Master dropped the newly formed body and smirked as the vampire gasped and looked around in horror before her eyes finally gained coherency and she gazed at the assembled demons curiously.

"Who are you to bring me back to life Puppet Master?" she demanded coldly.

He chuckled "You overestimate your importance my dear, I didn't bring you back per say, I merely created a new puppet to play with, to bow to my every whim"

Her eyes widened in horror and she snarled at him, her lithe body coiled and ready to strike.

He chuckled "Say goodbye to your freewill vampire."

Her eyes became glassy and vacant and the Puppet Master smirked as he added another toy to his collection. Kagura shuddered and pulled her feather from her hair.

"Let's go Kanna, this is dire."

"Kagura." The puppet master called softly "Before you leave I would like an answer; do you side with him or with me?"

She chuckled as her feather lifted them both into the air "Dear brother, you should know by now that I am on the side that is most profitable to me." she smirked "and Kanna knows no loyalty"

The void Yokai blinked at the puppet master and he found it easy to believe Kagura's words.

With that the feather carried the sisters away. The Puppet Master smirked; he knew he liked them for some reason.

The monk-in-hiding slowly slunk away from sight, not much of the happenings had made sense to him but he would escape whilst still in one peace. After all, what use was eavesdropping if you did not live to tell the tale?

***

As Sesshoumaru escorted her from the bookstore, key in hand, Kagome regaled him with stories of her recent encounter with the Puppet Master.

"Hn" was her only reply when she finished her spiel.

"Don't 'hn' me!" she exclaimed "I nearly died!"

"You are constantly _almost_ dying." He reminded her in a bored tone.

"And you're a very consistent asshole." She replied snippily. "are you going to explain who he is now?"

He awarded her a calculating look and then spoke carefully "He is my uncle, he possessed this athame" he pulled it from his pocket and handed it to her.

"Your uncle is the bad guy?" she asked

"Please, we are not trapped within a bad Saturday morning cartoon. He is our adversary."

She rolled her eyes and looked at the blade he had handed her.

"Pretty." she commented softly rubbing her thumb over the inscription she shuddered slightly; there was something off about the blade.

"Appearances are deceiving; it has the ability to suppress a Miko's powers. It could kill you easily."

She wrinkled her nose up and passed it back over to him. He pocketed it and continued with his story. He turned them away from the high street and along a narrow lane that eventually branched out into a deserted, forgotten cemetery grounds. He wanted some privacy.

"It would seem you are important to him and to my mother." Sesshoumaru sighed "and it has something to do with your blood."

"But we aren't any closer to figuring out what the shikon no tama onna refers to, or why everyone seems to think I'm her!"

At Kagome's exclamation there was a deep rasping laugh and they both tensed in preparation for something. Anything.

Sesshoumaru stepped in front of her body slightly to shield her and Kagome cast her eyes around the graveyard cautiously.

"Fear not young ones, this old one would mean you no harm." The voice reassured them as they moved deeper into the graveyard warily.

"Reveal yourself." Sesshoumaru ordered calmly.

"I am right here." the voice chuckled.

Kagome blinked and tugged on Sesshoumaru's sleeve, turning to look at her he frowned when she merely pointed at one of the many, old trees in the graveyard. He was about to ask if she had perhaps lost her sanity when the tree chuckled at him once again.

"Kodama-sama." Sesshoumaru acknowledged.

"Bokensu" the tree supplied "are you talking about the shikon no tama?"

"People believe I am the shikon no tama onna" Kagome spoke up.

"Interesting." The tree's leaves shook as if it was awaking from a stupor. "I have not heard that part of the legend, but then, it has been a long time since I was confided in."

"You have heard some of the legend?" Kagome asked hesitantly.

"I know of the start," he chuckled softly, "but I believe you are living the end."

"Explain." Sesshoumaru commanded.

"Once, a long time ago, before your time demon." The tree began in a melodious voice "There was a jewel crafted from the soul of a Miko and a demon, locked in eternal combat never to be released. The jewel was protected for many years by Mikos who would vanquish the demons who would attempt to harness the power of this jewel. The Shikon no Tama. Eventually one Miko, a fine young Miko of exceptional powers, grew weary of the curse entrusted to her by the gods. She fused the jewel with her body and threw herself into a volcano; she wanted the jewel vanquished and certainly I have never sensed its presence since."

"So why are all these demons after me?" Kagome asked.

"I do not know, perhaps you should seek council with one other than me, I have been sleeping for centuries."

"Thank you for your help Bokensu-sama." Kagome bowed to the old tree and she and Sesshoumaru took their leave.

"So, more riddles I guess." Kagome lamented softly as she blew her hair from her eyes.

"It would seem that way." Sesshoumaru sighed.

"Kagome!" Miroku, who had been tracking her reiyouku for the past half an hour, stumbled upon them.

"Miroku? What's wrong?" she asked worriedly.

"Some guy calling himself the Puppet Master just brought back to life your little vampire friend." he panted.

"Huh?" she blinked in shock. "But how?"

"I don't think she's truly alive, he said he made her into a 'Puppet'. I think he's taken her free will."

"Hn." Sesshoumaru scowled "It would seem that while we are engaged in a battle with my uncle and the Puppet Master, they are both still at odds with each other."

"Why?" Kagome rolled her eyes. "They both want me dead."

"Correction, the Puppet Master wants you dead to spite my uncle, who wants your blood." Sesshoumaru responded shortly.

"But the question is, why?" Miroku pondered.

"You haven't figured it out yet?" a snide voice called to them "I expected more of you Sesshoumaru. And, Monk, learn to follow a demon with a little more finesse."

A/N: I don't own Inuyasha. Thank you all for your reviews and please review again ne? It makes me so happy!


	10. Chapter 10: Slave of the Mind

Chapter Ten: Slave of the Mind

The two Higurashi siblings and Sesshoumaru spun to witness two demons descend from the sky on an ivory coloured feather.

Sesshoumaru growled. "Kagura, Kanna."

The dark haired demon inclined her head but the void demon made no indication that she had even heard him, turning away to look at Kagome with hollow eyes.

"What do you want?" Kagome demanded as Sesshoumaru casually stepped forward to obscure her with his body. She tried to hold back the eye roll, as if she needed protecting.

"To clue you guys into the secrets" the dark haired woman smiled "sort of..."

"What do you mean?" Miroku asked cautiously keeping an eye on the white haired demon referred to as Kanna. She was still staring at Kagome with dead eyes, as if she could see through the bulk that was a rather protective Sesshoumaru.

"If you have information, talk," Sesshoumaru ordered harshly.

Kagura grimaced slightly, recognising someone who wouldn't probably respond to her teasing very well. "My master, your Uncle, is after her blood right?"

"We knew that," Kagome pointed out.

Kagura glowered at her impudence. "Quiet, girl! He wants her because of that legend the tree recanted to you, the Miko that fused the jewel into her body may have died, but she keeps getting reincarnated, and the Mikos that are her reincarnations have the right blood! The blood of the Shikon no Tama."

"So they want my blood because of some jewel?" Kagome asked dubiously.

"The jewel was the most powerful magical artefact to ever exist." Kanna intoned in a monotone voice that was chilling, "Your blood is laced with power, a power that sings." She titled her soulless eyes to look at the overcast sky.

_...the blood that would attract all of Yokai..._

Kagome shuddered, there was something about that girl that she really didn't like... not one bit.

Kagura shrugged in a blasé fashion "I don't know all the details, only the lords of the state should... of course our master may have eavesdropped to get the information"

"Lords?" Sesshoumaru growled. Surely this didn't mean that his father knew of all this?

"It's seems daddy and mummy dearest have kept you out of the loop Sesshoumaru-sama, I would go and enquire about this girl if I were you."

"Your condescension will earn you a beheading," Sesshoumaru promised as he cracked his knuckles menacingly.

Kagome chuckled, suddenly slightly uneasy, and pulled a feather from her hair, hoisting her and her sister into the air. "And this is how you repay me for my kindness? You owe me a debt for telling you this, Sesshoumaru-sama!"

Sesshoumaru's face contorted into a gruesomely promising smirk as his claws flashed green. "Come and let me reward you properly."

"Temper, temper!" she scolded as she disappeared into the heavens.

Kagome was hitching a ride from her brother, completely exhausted after the previous few days of emotional and physical exertion. But she still had enough energy to whinge. Much to Sesshoumaru's dismay.

"Why can't we go now?" she demanded.

"Because you cannot walk and your brother has become a pack mule," Sesshoumaru pointed out dryly.

"Besides that!" she waved his interjection aside as if it were a troublesome bug.

"My father is the head of the Lords of state, he presides over them all, not even I can get an audience with him on such short notice. You will have to wait until tomorrow."

"Wait, you can't even get to see him? He's your father!"

"He is the head of the Lords of State," Sesshoumaru corrected.

"That's sad," Kagome sympathised.

Sesshoumaru snorted. "If you had met my father, you would not think such."

They reached the shrine in record time, considering Sesshoumaru made no allowances for their human legs and marched them all the way home like some kind of demonic drill sergeant.

Their mother promptly went into mollycoddling overload when they arrived back and Miroku and Kagome valiantly put up with being hugged until they turned blue in the face.

Sesshoumaru had promptly been ordered to stay overnight by the Higurashi matriarch and nothing he said seemed to affect the obtuse woman in any way shape or form.

He ended up in Miroku's bed, cheerfully usurping the Hentai Houshi and relegating him to the sofa in the living room.

Kagome woke the next morning and growled. She felt like a sack of potatoes with the way she had been treated recently and she really couldn't find the resolve within her to move.

Today she should be finding out what in the world she was supposed to be exactly. It was her birthday in four days, she realised belatedly as she glanced at her calendar forlornly. She hadn't really had much chance to dwell on that since meeting Sesshoumaru. It seemed her life was becoming steadily more complicated.

Shower! That's what she needed, she needed a shower, to revitalise herself and help soothe her poor muscles and aching bones.

Hauling herself from her nice, warm, bed she lurched zombie-style towards her bathroom...

Only to run straight into a bare warm chest.

She nearly fell backwards onto her bottom but a clawed hand shot out and caught her by her shoulder.

"S-sesshoumaru?" she blinked a few times. He looked good enough to eat, stood there with a towel slung about his slender hips, droplets of water running from his long hair over his intricately muscled form, steam billowing from the bathroom behind him.

He crooked an eyebrow at her agog expression and smirked slightly. "Watch where you're going sleepy-chan."

It took her a few moments to come to terms with what he had said but when she did she directed a gimlet stare in the direction of Miroku's room. He knew just what buttons to press and she hated him for it.

Eventually she realised that wishing bad karma upon him wasn't helping her back, so she relocated to stand under the beautifully warm jets of the shower.

By the time a bleary eyed Kagome slumped into her seat at the breakfast table everyone else was sat around amicably, Sesshoumaru was munching toast and her mother was singing along to the radio under her breath.

"This is freakishly normal," she muttered under her breath as she snagged a piece of toast and chewed sullenly.

"Freakishly?" Souta enquired, looking up at her from over the edge of the manga he had brought to the table.

"No manga at the breakfast table!" his mother swooped down on him and snagged the latest copy of 'Bleach' easily.

"Yeah, freakishly," Kagome continued as Souta began to pout. "I've nearly died so many times this week and now I'm sat here eating toast, feels like months since I had this much normality."

Sesshoumaru effortlessly reached across the breakfast laden table and snagged the toast from her mouth, quickly polishing it off in four bites.

"Why'd you do that?" she screeched.

"Hungry," he supplied shortly, quickly glugging down the pint of orange juice laid in front of him he caught Kagome's wrist in his hand and dragged her out of the kitchen with him. "we'll be leaving now!"

The Higurashi family waved vaguely as Sesshoumaru carted a stunned Kagome out of her own home.

"Stop pouting at once," Sesshoumaru ordered as he drove, not once taking his eyes from the road.

"I'm hungry!" she whined.

"And we were nearly late, my father does not take kindly to being left waiting," Sesshoumaru spoke through gritted teeth.

For the first time that morning, she studied his tense posture, his face was scrunched up, almost imperceptibly, in something akin to unease and his shoulders were so stiff they looked brittle.

"Sesshoumaru, are you alright?"

He spared her a brief scathing glance. "I never cared for my father after he deserted my mother."

"Oh," she glanced down at her interlaced fingers; suddenly the atmosphere was awkward. What did you say to a declaration of hate towards a parent? She could remember feeling like that when her father had first left them. "I remember feeling like that, when my father left."

His eyes narrowed and his gaze never wavered from the road, as if he was ignoring her, but he hadn't told her to shut up, so she took it as permission.

"He was American," she began, interlacing her fingers in her lap and studying them intently, "he came here on business for a while and spotted my mother, she worked in a pastry shop, back then. Fairy tale stuff ensued and they got married, had Miroku and then me and after a while, Souta,"

She paused, and Sesshoumaru glanced sidelong at her, "But my dad worked at a large company that eventually began to close down, he knew he was going to be forced into redundancy and stopped being my dad anymore. He was withdrawn, depressed and argued with Mama because he couldn't stand her attitude. Regardless of all the troubles we were sure to face Mama kept a smile and tried to comfort him. It made him angry. But then, he didn't see when she would cry in the kitchen when she thought no one was around."

Kagome lowered her head and her hair obligingly fell to shroud her face. "But Dad eventually snapped, he left us two days after my eighth birthday... and I hated him. I told him that I hated him, I yelled it at him as he turned his back on us."

She pushed her hair behind an ear and smiled at him. "But, in the end, it was better that way. We moved into Ojjisan's shrine and Mama started to sing again, before all that stuff with dad she'd sung all the time, when she was hanging out the laundry, she hummed when she washed the dishes, whistled whilst she baked... and after dad left she became happy again. And I realised that I needed to forgive him, it wasn't like he set out to hurt Mama."

Kagome blinked as Sesshoumaru tucked a wayward strand of hair behind her ear and his eyes were soft, even if he maintained his stoic expression. "Sometimes it can be for the better, but you do not know my father," he turned into a long winding drive that was smoothly paved and lined with arches of Yamazakura that Kagome mused would be even more splendid if it was flowering season. "Unfortunately, you are about to meet him."

The house eventually came into view, if you could even call it a house. It was a huge sprawling western styled mansion that was so big Kagome couldn't see to expanse of it from where she stood when she exited the car and gazed up at with awe.

The front door opened and an aging butler appeared his eyes shrewd, "Sesshoumaru-sama, your father is waiting for you in the third reception room."

Sesshoumaru nodded and yanking Kagome along by a hand around her elbow, he paced through the many corridors of the mansion until he got to the third reception room.

He laid a hand on the handle but paused before opening it. "Be on your guard, Kagome, my father is not someone you can trust."

Golden eyes closed bracingly; he couldn't help but think that maybe he was throwing Kagome to the lions maybe.

He started as she extricated her arm from his grasp and instead took his hand and squeezed, "I'll be okay, Sesshoumaru."

Without consent, he squeezed his hand around hers, returning the gesture and opened the door, his senses all on high alert, youki fanning around him warningly.

They stepped into the huge sitting room and paused as a voice called out from a throne that sat with it's back to them, "Such hostile youki, you would think I was your enemy, rather than your sire, whelp."

"Father," Sesshoumaru acknowledged scathingly, pulling Kagome behind him slightly. That tone of voice on his father was not a good thing.

"Sesshoumaru-sama," a startling familiar voice purred from beside the throne, and Sesshoumaru and Kagome started as they recognised the woman.

It was the vampire.

The one Sesshoumaru had slaughtered the day before.

"Otou-sama, what is she doing here? She tried to kill my guest recently!" Sesshoumaru growled, eyes never shifting from the woman beside the throne.

"It is fine, my son," the male voice said condescendingly, "She was a gift from a friend of mine, you needn't worry, she is completely obedient, he programmed her that way."

"Programmed?" Sesshoumaru growled, "you mean he resurrected her and made her into a slave?"

"Yes, she is the perfect bodyguard," the male voice chuckled and Kagome gasped as the speaker stood and revealed himself. He resembled Sesshoumaru, same silver hair and golden eyes, but this man was older looking and his hair was pulled into a topknot, not to mention he lacked Sesshoumaru's facial markings and only retained blue horizontal stripes on each cheek.

"Perfect how?" Sesshoumaru bit out, "she tried to kill me before, who's to say she will not attempt again? Besides, she worked for Uncle, she is not to be trusted!"

"Because she is mindless," he intoned softly, "she is my doll and would kill herself in an instant if I told her too, ne, Akae-chan?"

"Hai, _goshujinsama_." The vampire nodded her head humbly, her eyes black, flat, and uncaring. Kagome shuddered.

"No matter what a person has done," she muttered so that only Sesshoumaru could hear her, "they should never be subjected to that."

Sesshoumaru squeezed her hand comfortingly in response.

"So, whelp." His father narrowed his eyes speculatively. "Aren't you going to introduce me to the little ningen hiding behind you?"

Sesshoumaru's eyes hardened and he reminded himself that he had to introduce Kagome, it was the reason he was here. It was hard though, considering all he wanted to do was to hide her from his father. A sinking feeling clenched his gut and he closed his eyes; he sincerely hoped this dread was misplaced.

Discalimer: I don't own Inuyasha nor do I make any profit from this work of fiction.

A/N: Sorry it's been a while, I had writer's block on this fiction, but here you go! Thanks for reading and review!


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